V: Supercross
by MdX MaxX
Summary: After a long 3 years following On Tour, SSX is back and better than ever! With 14 returning competitors and 4 newbies, who knows what awesomeness, romance, randomness, and/or mayhem will happen? Get ready for the experience! PLEASE READ NOTE ON FIRST PAGE
1. Chapter Zero

**Okay. I've decided that this story is way too bloated for me to manage properly. If I do try to continue it, I just won't get it right, because I need many more details than I'm willing to come up with right now.**

**But all is not lost! I do love this story, and I'm not going to give it up. I don't know when, but I'm going to start it over. I may start this around January, when college applications are all in.**

**I will keep the same fundamental concepts, but I'll rework certain events, strip irrelevant details, and do a better job of characterization and relationships (Griff&Sarah definitely happened WAY too fast, and my other OCs don't have much personality yet). Chapter One will be separated from the story and will be an optional read, and I don't think I'll be reworking it (It may cause some inconsistencies, but oh well).**

**Sorry to those who have been waiting. But two years of rigorous English classes will definitely help me write a better story.**

**Chapter Zero**

A young man with black, spiky hair and dark sunglasses enters a large, dark room. His footsteps echo on the hard metal floor. He maneuvers over to the far wall, where an wide array of switches are located. He flicks the first one... Suddenly a panel of buttons and lights illuminates at the next wall. He gives a slight chuckle of amusement. The next few switches: A huge wall of screens activates above the button panel, all of them at once. They display a loading bar, showing they seem to be connecting to a network. A fluorescent light clicks on overhead, filling the room with light, and the hum of machines running starts to get louder. A music setup powers on in the corner next to the button panel, and a powerful supercomputer powers on. After hitting all of the switches, the room is filled with mechanical activity. The man walks up to the button panel and pushes one of the green flashing ones in the center. A polished silver-colored microphone slowly rises from a compartment. He taps the mic with his finger a few times, checking the sound system, then backs away. He walks until stopping in the center of the enormous room, reaches for his pocket, and pulls out a small, silver, glossy touchscreen device. He pushes the single small button on the top and the device illuminates instantly, and a logo flashes on the touchscreen, reading "MCOMM" in techno font. He smiles in subtle excitement, looks up at the large wall of screens, nods his head in triumph and three words escape his mouth: "SSX is back..."

Next: **Chapter One: The Initiation**


	2. The Initiation

_(Commentary: Well, this is the first chapter of V. It took me a long time, but I got it done in a couple of days because of Thanksgiving break. This chapter is very long (7781 words, ouch!) so if you don't care about a particular character, you can skip him/her, since the same thing generally happens to everyone. Just don't skip the newbies, and I wouldn't skip Griff's story personally. Well, enjoy!)_

**Chapter One: The Initiation**

**Shane Vitesse – Age 17**

Shane is a half-French, half-American schoolboy living in Philadelphia that's just trying to make it through his Junior year in high school. He loves to snowboard more than anyone else in his family, and since Pennsylvania's so up North, he gets to snowboard in the mountains every winter. He has competed in, and won, many state competitions, but since his parents spend most of their free money on their restaurant business, he hasn't had the money to enter/travel to any national or international competitions. He enjoys boarding in his little area, but he has a growing desire for something bigger and better.

Shane, just getting home from school, drops his backpack by the front door, gives a quick wave to his mom in the kitchen, and runs up to his room. He just received his Xbox 360 from repair yesterday, and he can't wait to start playing his new copy of Gears of War 2. He puts the disc in the system and plops down on the bed as the game starts up. As he signs in to Xbox Live, his mom walks in holding a small box wrapped in a silver wrapping paper.

"This came for you in the mail about an hour ago, don't know who it's from though," she says and tosses it toward him, Shane quickly catching it as she leaves the room. He shifts his blond hair out of his eyes and examines the package for a few seconds before quickly tearing the silver wrapping off. He doesn't even stop to think what it might be before stripping the tape and opening the flaps on the box. In it, he finds two items: an envelope, and another box. He picks up the smaller box and checks it out, it having a thin felt texture like what a piece of jewelry would be packaged in. It has 5 letters on the front reading "MCOMM" in techno font. At this point Shane doesn't know what it is (he's heard of SSX but hasn't tuned in much). He separates the two halves of the box, revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device. The only thing on it is the small button on the top.

Shane looks puzzled, "Is this a new PDA or something?" He places the device down and returns to the original box, picking up the envelope. It has a single letter on the front: V. He tears open the envelope and finds two items. He picks up the first one, a small piece of paper that reads:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

with a graphic of the touchscreen device and an arrow pointing to the button on top.

Suddenly, it clicks, and Shane is speechless. He can barely contain his excitement as he reaches over to the other paper item, which turns out to be a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand leaving in one week. Still speechless, he grabs the touchscreen device and presses the power button, and the device illuminates instantly, with a message on the screen:

"Shane Vitesse, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

He's completely forgotten about Gears of War 2.

**Carol Snow – Age 16**

Carol Snow, living in Montpelier, Vermont, is the most intelligent girl in her class. Her bleach-blond-haired, blue-eyed cheerleader appearance may not show it, but she's the only girl in school with above a 96 in all of her classes. She's well on her way to college with a full academic scholarship.

But most don't know that she loves to snowboard. Her parents know she does it as a hobby, but have no idea of her deep passion for the sport. Many times she's at the local ski resort practicing while her parents believe she's at the library studying. When the resort has its annual snowboarding and skiing competition, she dominates all the opponents her age. Her parents praise her natural academic and athletic talent.

Carol is studying hard for her mid-term exam in Chemistry. As she is trying to memorize chemical formulas, the doorbell rings. Her mom is at the supermarket, her dad at work still, so she walks downstairs to the front door and swings it open. On the front steps she finds a small package wrapped in a silver paper and sees the FedEx truck a few houses down the road delivering to someone else. She picks up the package, closes the door, and settles on the living room couch. Carol examines the package, realizing it is addressed to her, but it also has no return address. It doesn't look suspicious though, so she removes the silver wrapping and strips the tape off of the box. Inside, under the bubble wrap, she finds a smaller felt box, and an envelope with the letter V on it. The number 5 pops into her head right away, what else could V mean? She picks up the smaller box and sees the "MCOMM" logo on it in techno font. Carol instantly thinks of SSX, the competition she's been dreaming of participating in since she was 8, and a huge grin emerges on her face as she separates the two halves of the box. Inside, she finds a small, white, glossy touchscreen device. The only thing on it is the small button on the top.

Immediately she pushes the small button, and the screen illuminates instantly, with a message on the screen:

"Carol Snow, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

She lets out an ear-piercing scream like any girl would when excited. At that point, her mother walks in, holding a few bags of groceries. "Carol, can you help me get the rest of the groc-"

"MOM, MOM, I got into the SSX competition!!!" she exclaims, shoving the MCOMM in her mom's face, as if she can read what's half an inch in front of her.

"Wow, that's great Carol!" she says in return. "When does it start?"

"Hmm, I dunno, let me check that envelope." She walks over to the couch and picks up the envelope marked V and tears it open. Inside she finds a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand, leaving in one week. "It starts next week! Oh this is going to be the best thing to ever happen to me!!"

She's completely pushed mid-terms out of her mind.

**Zach Truman – Age 21**

Zach is your typical rich boy born and raised in London, England. He's been around luxury and riches all his life, and though he's not as snobbish as most wealthy would be, his arrogance shows often, especially in competition. At age 21, Zach's fresh out of college and is ready to make a name for himself.

Zach's a snowboarding aficionado. From the time he started school, his parents used to take him up north to the mountains every winter, and he quickly honed his skills, learning how to do spins and flips and grabs before most could nail a 180. His parents obviously spent thousands on top-of-the-line snowboards and gear, happy that Zach had a passion for something.

Currently, Zach lives in an average-sized home in Sweden, smart enough to save most of his inherited fortune. He moved up north mainly to come closer to the snowboarding action. He's met Viggo once or twice in regional competitions, but doesn't know him personally. He does, however, know about his experience in the SSX competition and aspires to be part of it one day.

Zach's sitting at home in the living room tuning in to ESPN to check out the latest sports highlights. He hears the doorbell ring and maneuvers toward the front door, hoping it's the pizza he ordered a half hour ago. When he swings open the door, he finds no pizza, but a single silver package on the doorstep. He swipes it up and shuts the door in disappointment, and returns to the living room. Plopping down on the couch, Zach starts to strip the silvery wrapping off the box. He opens the flaps and tosses the bubble wrap laying on top, revealing 2 items. One is a small box, like what jewelry would be packaged in, except bigger, and the other is an envelope with a single letter on the front: V. Without any thoughts he picks up the small box bearing the name "MCOMM" in techno font. Separating the two halves of the box, he finds a small, black, glossy touchscreen device with a single button on top. "This must be one of those new iPods," he says in his perfect British accent. "Humph, there's a billion of 'em already... Let's see what this envelope tells me." He tears open the monogrammed envelope and finds a small piece of paper reading:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

with a graphic of the touchscreen device and an arrow pointing to the button on top.

"Wait, SSX?" A gasp of excited disbelief leaves his mouth, "No way!" Zach swipes up the touchscreen device and pushes the button, illuminating the device instantly, and displaying a message on the screen:

"Zach Truman, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

Convinced that this really is happening, Zach lets out a "Yessssssss!" in a loud whisper. He gets caught up in his excitement so much he doesn't hear the "ding-dong" of the doorbell until about the fifth time.

"Oh, pizza's here."

**Sarah Simmons – Age 18**

Sarah Simmons lives in Los Angeles, California. She's the kind of shy girl that doesn't really fit in with anyone. Sarah's not weird in any way, and it's not that nobody likes her. She just doesn't really relate to anyone, and it's hard for her to make any friends.

Sarah loves the outdoors, she has ever since her early childhood. But she hates the heat, so winter has grown to be her favorite season. When she was about 8, she found a way to combine the best of both worlds: skiing. She's become a real expert at it, and is always riding the slopes on her free weekends, perfecting her skills. Recently, she's taken up snowboarding as well, and is now just as good at it as she is at skiing. Sarah loves the freedom of snowboards, how they are more trick-able and entertaining to her than skis. Her parents don't plan for her to snowboard or ski as anything more than a hobby in the future, but she wants to see where life takes her in the sport.

It's about dusk, and Sarah is at home, combing her long, black hair after showering. Her parents are away for the weekend on a business trip, and she's been reading and playing her PlayStation 3 the whole day. She hears a vehicle pull up in front of the house, and taking a glance toward the window, she sees the local FedEx deliveryman walking up to the front door. She gets up from her chair and leaves her room, and she hears the doorbell ring as she is halfway down the stairs. Sarah walks through the kitchen, to the living room, and to the front door, and gently pulls it open. She finds a silver package on the doorstep and picks it up, and waves to the deliveryman as he walks back toward his truck.

Back in her room, Sarah places the package on her desk and sits down. She notices the lack of a return address as she peels the silver wrapping off the box. "They must not want this sent back, I guess it's important..." She opens the flaps of the box and removes the bubble wrap, placing it on the desk. Inside the box, there are two items: a smaller felt box with the name "MCOMM" on it in techno font, and an envelope with the letter V on the front. "MCOMM? That sounds familiar, where have I heard that...?" She takes the envelope in her hands and carefully lifts the flap. Inside, there are two pieces of paper. She takes out the bigger one and finds a plane ticket for a flight to "...New Zealand? Is this package really for me?" Sarah removes the other piece of paper from the envelope and reads the message:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

Next to the sentence is an image of a small device with an arrow pointing to the top of it.

She lets out a gasp of surprise, "_I_ got chosen for SSX? But......_how?_"

She takes the small box out of the package and separates the two halves of it, revealing a small, white, glossy touchscreen device, just like the image on the piece of paper. She presses the button on the top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message on the screen:

"Sarah Simmons, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

Sarah can't speak, she can hardly breathe. She stares at the device in amazement, feeling shock, excitement, confusion, all at the same time. But it didn't matter. As a smile slowly emerges on her face, all she manages to say is, "I'm gonna be in SSX..."

**Eddie Wachowski – Age 26**

Eddie participated in SSX's second season, but quit after that to pursue his career in Computer Programming. Now, he has a good job with a small company, and still has enough free time to street luge as a hobby. He hasn't lost his boarding skills though, he still heads up north in the winters to maintain his abilities and learn new tricks.

Eddie's in his garage repairing his street luge board after losing control and crashing into a fence the other day. He has some '80s music playing loud on his boom box and random tools scattered on the ground. While screwing in a wheel, he hears the doorbell ring, and walks up front to see who it is. He opens the door and finds a silver package on the doorstep, and looks up to see the FedEx truck leaving. He picks up the package, closes the door, and sits on the couch, placing the package on the coffee table. "Heh, finally, something that's not junk mail or bills." Eddie tears the silver wrapping off, strips the tape, opens the flaps, and removes the bubble wrap. Inside, there's a box with the name "MCOMM" on the front, and an envelope with the letter V on it. "Whoa, is this the new MCOMM?" Eddie says as he reaches for the small box. He separates the two halves of the box revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device with a button on top. "WOW, much improved over that prototype they gave us in Tricky!"

"I know where this is going!" He tears open the envelope and finds two pieces of paper. One is a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand, the other a small paper that reads:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

with a graphic of the MCOMM and an arrow pointing to the button on top.

"Sweet! SSX is back!" He picks up the MCOMM and presses the power button on top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message on the screen:

"Eddie Wachowski, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

**Zoe Payne – Age 27**

Zoe moved back home after serving as BIG Mountain's mayor for 2 years following SSX's fourth season. She's been with SSX since the beginning and has been practicing almost daily, anxiously waiting for a new season.

Zoe's home alone, Moby's visiting his relatives back in Brixton, England. To pass the time, Zoe's been digging through her huge closet to sort through all of her old snowboards. Even she's amazed at how much she has stocked up in her closet. Way in the back, she finds one of her oldest boards, Seratonim. "Ah, I remember riding this baby in the first SSX. Couldn't do any uber tri-"

Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Zoe heads downstairs and opens the front door, and finds two silver packages on the doorstep. One is addressed to her, the other to Moby. She picks up both, tosses Moby's on the couch and walks back upstairs to her room. She plops down on her bed, tears the silver wrapping off, and opens the flaps. Under the bubble wrap there's two items, a box with the word "MCOMM" on it and an envelope with the letter V on the front. "Well well, looks like the MCOMM 3.0 is out finally." She picks up the box, separates the two halves, and picks up the small, white, glossy touchscreen device contained within the box. She presses the single small button on top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Zoe Payne, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"It's about time! I better tell Moby."

Zoe reaches into her pocket, takes out her cell phone, and presses speed dial 2. It rings 3 times before it picks up and a British voice answers, "Moby Jones."

"Hey Moby, looks like we'll have something to do this winter after all..."

**Mac Fraser – Age 23**

Mac's been living on his own in Canada, raking in money from his professional snowboarding career. He quit working for Tyson after getting tired of being bossed around by someone his own age. He doesn't get as much cash now, but can still afford all the pizza, CDs, and video games he wants.

Mac's at home making a batch of his 'Mac-Smack Lemonade'. It really never gets hot where he lives, but his lemonade is still extremely popular in his neighborhood. As he's stirring in the vanilla, he accidentally knocks over one of his full pitchers of lemonade and it crashes on the floor. "Aw dammit!" He sighs loudly. "Now I've gotta go buy a new pitcher." He walks over to the broom closet, and as he opens the door, the doorbell rings. He quickly cleans up the liquid and broken glass and heads toward the front door. When he swings it open, he finds a silver package on the ground in front of him. Mac swipes up the package and starts tearing the silvery wrapping off as he walks back to the kitchen. He puts the package on the counter, opens the flaps, and removes the bubble wrap. Inside, there's a smaller box with the "MCOMM" logo on it, and an envelope marked with the letter V. "Awesome, they finally released that new MCOMM!" He separates the two halves of the box, taking out the small, black, glossy touchscreen device inside, and admiring its sleekness. He presses the button on top to power it on, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Mac Fraser, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"Oh sweet! Looks like they've finally finished preparing for the fifth season! I can't wait to see what they've done with BIG Mountain this time!"

Mac opens the envelope and finds a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand. "New Zealand? So are we not going to-" He lifts up his foot, "Ick, floor's still sticky. I do put a lot of sugar in my lemonade..."

**Elise Riggs – Age 31**

Elise has been enjoying a life of pure bliss after SSX's fourth season. She owns a beach house in Tampico, Mexico, and earns hundreds of thousands of dollars every month from her worldwide jewelry business. She feels like she's living the perfect life, but at a few random times she feels like something's missing...

It is a hot, sunny summer day, and Elise takes the opportunity to get than tan she wanted. After a while, the doorbell rings (she has a sound system wired throughout the whole house, she can hear the doorbell from anywhere). She spends a few more minutes outside, then heads inside, gets dressed, and walks toward the front door. She opens it and there's a silver package on the doorstep. She picks it up and sits on the couch in her enormous living room. She carefully peels the silver wrapping off, strips the tape, and opens the flaps of the box. Inside, under the bubble wrap, there's a small box with the name "MCOMM" on the front, and an envelope marked "V". She already knows about the MCOMM, she's been in SSX since day 1. She picks up the small box and separates the two halves, revealing a small, white, glossy touchscreen device. "Smaller, sleeker, minimalistic...... much improved." She presses the power button on top and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Elise Riggs, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

Elise smiles a little in reaction. "Hmm. Maybe that's what I need. A little......action."

She opens the envelope, finding a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand. She's not used to flying on commercial flights, going everywhere on her private jet. "Well, at least it's first class..."

**Allegra Sauvagess – Age 23**

Allegra started on the SSX circuit in season 3, and has stuck with it ever since. After the fourth season, however, she went into the movie business and starred in a Zombie film, and it made millions. After that though, Allegra just felt her 15 minutes of fame were up, so she gave it up and moved back home to hang out with her skater friends. She did come back with a huge load of money though, and spent it on new skateboards, snowboards and gear, half of which are busted already.

Allegra's fast asleep on the couch, snoring loudly with a Domino's pizza box on top of her. She lives with her skater friend Erica right now, but she's somewhere visiting her family, and Allegra gets the small apartment to herself for a few days. The buzzer rings, and she tosses and turns for a few seconds before waking up. She shoves the pizza box onto the floor as she hears the mailman say, "Package for Miss Sauvagess," into the speaker downstairs. She gets up and pushes the button next to the speaker above the couch, and says, "Coming," in a tired voice. She leaves the apartment and walks downstairs to the lobby, retrieving her package from the front desk. She heads back up to the room while tearing at the silver wrapping, and the box is already torn apart as she hops back on the couch. Still only half-conscious, she picks up the smaller box inside and nearly drops it before diving to catch it, falling on the floor and waking her up.

She jumps up from the floor, "Okay, I'm awake, I'm awake. Now, what's in this box?" She separates the two halves of the small box and finds a small, white, glossy touchscreen device with a single button on top. She looks over to the top half of the box in her right hand and sees that it has the MCOMM logo on it. "Ah, this must be the new MCOMM 3.0 I've been hearing about." Allegra presses the power button on top and the screen illuminates, displaying a message:

"Allegra Sauvagess, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"YEAH! Now I can show off those tricks I've been practicing for so long!"

Puzzled about how to get to the competition, Allegra doesn't find the envelope until 5 days later when Erica somehow finds it under the couch.

**Griff Simmons – Age 18**

Griff, now older and wiser, is in his senior year in high school. He didn't participate in SSX's fourth season; his parents forced him to stay in school to stabilize his education and get his grades back up. Now he's doing great, and has the freedom to do what he wants. He's broken his sugar addiction (he still has a sweet tooth though) and has matured mentally, gaining an amazing sense of humor, but personality-wise he's still the crazy kid we knew from the third season, just a deeper thinker.

It's a Saturday morning, and Griff has just gotten over the flu, being out of school for the past week. He plans to enjoy his weekend as much as he can before getting a crapload of schoolwork thrown on him Monday.

Griff is in his room playing Crysis on his top-of-the-line Alienware laptop. Working at the local Subway, he had to save up for over a year to get the money for the PC. But it was so worth it; he's got a Bluetooth mouse and headset and everything. Griff is trying to talk to the other players while wolfing down a pair of chocolate-flavored Pop-Tarts, and somehow he's making it work. As he finishes the round, the doorbell rings, and he tells his teammates that he'll be right back. He rushes toward the front door and opens it, and finds a silver package on the doorstep. He picks it up and finds that it's addressed to him, so he runs back upstairs, the package in one hand, and his half-eaten Pop-Tart in the other. By the time he gets back to his computer, the silver wrapping is already gone, and so is the Pop-Tart (Man, this kid can multitask). He finds his team taking a 5-minute break, so he calms down, plops down on his bed and opens the flaps of the package. He removes the bubble wrap and finds two things in the box, an envelope marked with the letter V, and a smaller box with the name "MCOMM" on it. Griff picks up the envelope and tears it open, and finds a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand. Now interested, he takes the smaller piece of paper out of the envelope, finding that it reads:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

Next to the sentence is an image of a small device with an arrow pointing to the top of it.

"Oh yeah! I've been waiting for SSX to come back! This'll be awesome!"

He reaches over to the smaller box and separates the two halves, revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device. Griff quickly presses the small power button on top and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Griff Simmons, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"Sweet, a new season AND a new MCOMM, it can't get any better than this!" Griff starts doing a victory dance for about two seconds, then lets out an "Oh crap!" and rushes back to his computer when he realizes his team has already started the next round in Crysis.

**Moby Jones – Age 25**

Moby's been a strong SSX competitor since the first season. He wasn't able to participate in season 4 due to breaking his leg in a BMX bike race beforehand. Now he's up and running again, improving his boarding skills and enjoying his life with Zoe.

Moby's visiting his family in his hometown of Brixton, England. It's about 7pm right now, and he's walking home to meet up with his family for dinner. A few minutes from home, he feels his Blackberry vibrate in his pocket, and reaches to answer it. He presses the green call button and puts it up to his ear, not even checking the caller I.D. In his British voice he answers, "Moby Jones."

It's Zoe. "Hey Moby, looks like we'll have something to do this winter after all."

"What, did you win something?"

"Not exactly. It looks like SSX is finally starting back up again. I just got a package with the new MCOMM 3, I'm sure your package came with the same thing."

"Really. Well that's good to hear."

"I know, I've been dying for another competition."

"When does it start?"

"There's an envelope here, let me check." Moby hears a tearing sound through the phone, assuming she's opening the envelope. "Ah, here's a plane ticket for a flight that leaves in...one week. You think you'll be back by then?"

"Hmmm, I'll wasn't planning on coming back until then, I'll have to cut my visit short. Don't worry, I'll be there in time."

"Alright, cool. See you later then."

"Bye."

Moby hangs up the phone and stuffs it back in his pocket as he arrives back home. "_Finally_, I thought the next competition would never start..."

**Viggo Rolig – Age 24**

Viggo exploded onto the scene in the third season, and was having a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately, his family started to have some issues that still haven't been revealed to the public, and he had to quit halfway through the third season. Now, his family issues are settled, and Viggo now lives on his own. He owns a small music shop and has learned to play the guitar very well, and still practices snowboarding every weekend. Personality-wise, he has toned down his egotistic attitude quite a bit, and now just tries to be cool with everyone.

It's the middle of the afternoon on his day off, and Viggo's in his basement playing on his GuitarFreaks V5 arcade machine. He's pretty much turned his basement into a free arcade with his earnings from SSX. In the middle of Extra Stage, the doorbell rings, throwing off his concentration and making him fail the song. He sighs in defeat and goes upstairs to open the front door. On the doorstep, there's a small, silver package, and Viggo picks it up and closes the door. Standing right there, he strips off all the wrapping and tape and opens the box. Under the bubble wrap there's a box with the name "MCOMM" on it and an envelope marked "V". "Oh cool, it's that new MCOMM 3," he says with a small smile. He picks up the small box and separates the two halves, revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device. "Wow, much sleeker. I wonder if I can import my data from my old one..."

He presses the small button on top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Viggo Rolig, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"Sweet! The new SSX competition! I can't wait to see Allegra and everyone else again." He reaches over to the envelope and tears it open, and he finds a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand leaving in one week. "Ooh, I'll have to reschedule a couple of things..."

**Brodi Ford – Age 36**

After traveling the world in SSX's second season, Brodi decided to settle down for a few years. He moved to Hawaii where surfing is very popular, and decided to learn how to make surfboards, rather than just buying them. He made many tweaks to the regular surfboard design, and one thing led to another until the FordBoard became known throughout the whole state. He still goes up to Aloha Ice Jam the few times it gets cold enough, and has maintained his snowboarding skills.

Brodi's in his shop making a custom-designed FordBoard for a customer, applying the custom paint job. He hears the front door to the shop open and lifts his head up to see a FedEx deliveryman walking toward the counter with a silver package. "Package for Mr. Ford, " he says, leaving the package on the counter. "Thanks," Brodi says as the man leaves. He finishes up the paint and walks over to the package, leaving the paint to dry. He takes it and peels off the silver wrapping and tape. He opens the flaps and removes the bubble wrap, uncovering a small box with the "MCOMM" logo on it, and an envelope marked "V". He picks up the box and separates the two halves, revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device. "Wow, they sure did take the MCOMM to a whole new level." He puts the device down on the counter and picks up the envelope, tearing it open. Inside, he finds a small paper that reads:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

with a graphic of the MCOMM and an arrow pointing to the button on top.

"Oh wow, SSX is back, huh? They must be trying to re-recruit everybody I guess." He finds that the larger piece of paper is a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand leaving in one week. "Oh boy, I'm gonna have to cancel some board orders...or work _really fast_..." He picks up the MCOMM and presses the small button on top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Brodi Ford, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

A calm smile appears on Brodi's face. "Okay, I'm up for a little snowboarding action. This'll be fun."

**Psymon Stark – Age 33**

Sketchy went from crazy to completely insane after the fourth season, screwing with the time-space continuum and creating universal chaos. Fortunately, he was able to restore order; universal chaos was too crazy, even for him. Now, Psymon's finally done with 2 and a half years of physical therapy after breaking...well...every bone in his body...an unfortunate side-effect of his method of restoring order to the universe. Anyway, he's grown his hair back out, longer and spikier than ever (the mohawk made him look fat...er- or...less scary? The dreadlocks didn't do him much justice either...). _Anyway_, Psymon's been shredding the slopes up in Canada, keeping with his crazy death-defying boarding style, and ready to break half his bones again. (I think his senses are screwed up or something...*cough*...)

Psymon's just randomly wandering the streets, not knowing what mayhem to cause next. Suddenly, he randomly finds himself run over by a FedEx truck. "Ahh, the pain, it feels so good..." ... He gets up and the driver looks at him with a mix of nervous emotions. "Hey man, happen to have a package for Pssssssssssssssssssssssymon Stark?"

"Um...actually, yes. He reaches back and tosses a silver package at Psymon, then drives away really fast...

"Hm, loser," Psymon says as he tears the box apart, dropping a smaller box and an envelope on the ground. The two halves of the smaller box separate and a small, black, glossy touchscreen device hits the ground. "Oh cool, a new MmmmmmmCOMM!!!" He picks up the already scratched device and presses the button on top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Psymon Stark, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"OH Yeah! Now I know what I'm going to do next week after-"

A random two-headed alien runs past Psymon with an even more random caveman chasing after it...

"Aw, damn..."

**Kaori Nishidake – Age 24**

Kaori has been a regular on the SSX circuit since day 1, and now she's much more independent and self-sufficient than she's ever been. A year ago she broke up with Sid. She never liked him, but she felt she was tied into the relationship by Sid's potential craziness. Plus, he taught her English. But when Sid started trying to own her, she built up resistance and courage, and the last straw was one day when he threw her cell phone against the wall when he caught her texting Mac. She just got up, punched Sid in the jaw, _hard_, and stormed out of his place without a word. Neither has seen the other since, and Kaori's happy about it.

Now, she's living on some mysterious island somewhere in the ocean with her...erm- mascot friends. She's slowly getting tired of them though, and desperately wants to get away. She's returned her hair to pigtails; they're more manageable and they don't get into her eyes. But occasionally, she ties it into a bun to look older.

It's early morning Saturday, and Kaori's taking a walk on the beach, watching the sunrise and collecting her thoughts. She thinks about her life and whether she's happy with it, etc. After a while, she starts thinking of SSX. 'I wonder what's happening with the competition. What's going on up at Big Mountain? What are the boarders up to?' Then, her mind flashes toward Mac. She hasn't communicated with him since Sid destroyed her cell. 'Mac... What's he up to way up North? Does he miss me as much as I miss him...?'

A box suddenly hits her in the head, almost knocking her down. Rubbing her head, she looks down at the silver package that fell from the helicopter now soaring away from the island. (This is how she gets her mail so her location can remain mysterious...well, to everyone except the pilot/mailman.) Kaori removes the silver wrapping and tape from the box and opens it. Inside, under the bubble wrap, she finds a box with the "MCOMM" logo on it, and an envelope with the letter V on it. She separates the two halves of the box, revealing a small, white, glossy touchscreen device. "Wow, this has to be the best MCOMM yet, there's nothing other than the screen and power button..." She presses the small power button on the top, and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Kaori Nishidake, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

Kaori smiles in excitement. "Yes! I get to see Mac again!" She stops herself. "Umm... I mean, I can't wait to see the whole group back for a new season..." She runs inside to start packing her stuff. She brings A LOT of stuff when she travels...

**JP Arsenault – Age 32**

JP... Not much to say about him. After the second season he quit SSX due to being fed up with people. Then, he randomly jumps in the second part of season 3 with his hair randomly dyed blue. At the third season's end, he quits SSX, again, due to being fed up with people, _again_. All the competitors agree JP is a jerk, and really...random.

JP, his hair now its natural brown, sits down in his living room, facing his huge plasma screen, and gripping a silver package in his hands. He received it yesterday, but put it in the neighbor's garbage can because he thought it was a bomb (there was no return address). Since nothing blew up, he took it back, and now he's stripping the wrapping and tape and opening the box. Inside, he finds a small box with the "MCOMM" logo and an envelope marked "V". He picks up the small box and separates the two halves, revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device. In French (he never bothered to improve his English), he says, "What is this contraption? It looks like a paperweight..." JP isn't a technology person (except for his plasma screen). He tears open the envelope vigorously, nearly tearing the two pieces of paper inside. He picks up one paper and sees it's a plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand. He tosses it aside and pulls out the smaller paper. It reads:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

Next to the sentence is an image of the touchscreen device with an arrow pointing to the top of it.

Still in French, he says, "Ha, they want me back in SSX, do they? They must want me back to bring some greatness into the competition! Ha!" He picks up the MCOMM and presses the small power button on top. Its screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Jean-Paul Arsenault, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

In his rough, accented English, he says, "Ha! I veel show zem vut a real shampyun ees ull about!"

What a jerk...

**Seeiah Owens – Age 32**

Seeiah Owens did well in the SSX circuit in the second season, and had fun, too. But she felt in-line skating was more of her passion, and stuck with that. She focused on skating, but still snowboarded as a hobby. But over the past 2 years, she's been growing farther apart from in-line skating, and now it's just a once-a-week fun skate with her friends. Seeiah wants to do something else, but what?

Seeiah is at home, standing in front of the mirror, running her fingers through her shoulder-length black hair. She can't decide whether to shave it or to keep it. "Oh what the hey, I'll just flip a coin." She goes over to her bed and reaches into her purse, pulling out a penny. She shoots it up with her thumb, but it ends up falling behind the mirror and landing under her dresser. "Aw man..." Just then, the doorbell rings. Seeiah walks across her house to the front door and opens it, finding a silver package on the ground in front of her. She picks up the package and closes the door, and heads back to her room to open it up. After stripping the wrappings and opening the flaps, she removes the bubble wrap inside and picks up the small felt box inside. She separates the two halves of the box, revealing a small, white, glossy touchscreen device. "Hmm, a new MP3 player?" She looks over to the top half of the box that has the name "MCOMM" on it. "Hey wait a minute, MCOMM? I remember them giving us a device prototype back in SSX, it was codenamed MCOMM wasn't it?" There's also an envelope inside the package. She picks up the envelope and tears it open, finding two pieces of paper. She takes out the smaller one and reads it:

"The fifth year of SSX is here. Are you in?"

Next to the sentence is an image of the MCOMM with an arrow pointing to the top of it.

"Well. SSX's fifth season, huh? I've been looking for something to do. Looks like I've found it." Seeiah smiles and presses the small power button on the MCOMM. The screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Seeiah Owens, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"Well isn't that nifty! I wonder what else this thing can do..."

**Tyson Logan – Age 23**

Tyson just joined the SSX circuit in the fourth season, following in his brother Nate's footsteps. He was a strong competitor right from the start, and made it to the Top 3 out of everyone. But Tyson got really bored with skis after watching most of the other competitors perform tricks easier and faster on snowboards. After the competition, Tyson got snowboarding instruction from the best instructors in Canada, and is now a boarding expert, tricking and speeding better than he ever could on skis. Tyson's been waiting for the next SSX to show off his new talents, but the next season hasn't come.

Tyson is in his huge 6-story mansion – obviously the _king of Canada_ is gonna have a huge house – relaxing in his enormous hot tub on the third floor. His hot tub dwarfs an Olympic-sized swimming pool (Yeah, this kid is rich). "Man, Nate is missing out!" Tyson is enjoying the steam and hot water when the doorbell rings. As expected, about 2 minutes later, Tyson's best friend Wilson enters the hot tub room. (Tyson pays Wilson $1000 a week for being his servant; Wilson's not complaining one bit.) Wilson walks in holding a silver package. "Put it right here," Tyson says, pointing right next to him. Wilson places it there and leaves. Tyson presses a small purple button next to him, and the steam clears, being sucked through now open vents in the ceiling. Tyson dries his hands on a towel next to him and picks up the package, tearing the silver wrapping and stripping the tape. He opens the flaps and removes the bubble wrap, revealing a small box with the "MCOMM" logo on it, and an envelope marked "V". Tyson picks up the small box and separates the two halves, revealing a small, black, glossy touchscreen device with a single small button on top.

"I hope this means what I think it means!" He presses the small button on top and the screen illuminates instantly, displaying a message:

"Tyson Logan, welcome to the fifth season of the SSX snowboarding competition."

"FINALLY! I've been waiting to show everyone my new snowboarding skills!" He opens the envelope and finds the plane ticket for a flight to New Zealand leaving in a week. Excited, he hops out of his enormous hot tub, dries off, and heads to his bedroom to start packing. Like Kaori, he also brings A LOT of stuff when he travels.

Once in his room, he grabs his Blackberry off his nightstand and presses speed dial 6. It rings once and the other line picks up.

"Hello, Mr. President. Listen, I'm gonna have to postpone our meeting next week..."

**One Week Later...**

It's Saturday morning in New Zealand, and the young man with black, spiky hair is sitting on the balcony of his hotel room, drinking a cup of coffee. It's cold, but he doesn't care, because today is the big day. As he finishes his coffee, he places the mug on the table in front of him and picks up his glossy, sliver MCOMM from the table. He wakes it from sleep, goes to the main menu and logs into the SSX network. He chooses "Player Info" from the main Network Menu, followed by "Registration Status" on the next screen. The 18 competitors for this year's SSX competition are listed, and each name has a green checkmark next to it. "Excellent..." he says in a low, amused voice. He puts his MCOMM into sleep mode and enjoys the view from the balcony for a few more minutes. Then, he reaches for his MCOMM and coffee mug, and stands up. He smiles and says, "Well, I better start heading to the airport and get set up. The first few competitors should be arriving in a few hours..."

Next Chapter: **Chapter Two: The Arrival**


	3. The Arrival

_(Commentary: The second chapter of the story. This is where the story starts to drive, and all the competitors meet. For Part II, I hope I did well with the whole "love at first sight" idea. I tried to ease into it so it wouldn't seem so corny, but maybe I should have just been outright with it... I don't know. As for the rest of the story, please comment on how well the characters act like themselves. Other than that, enjoy!)_

**Chapter Two: The Arrival**

**Part I**

It's about 45°F at New Zealand's Auckland International Airport. It is unusually cold for this time of the year, since summer is near (opposite of the Northern Hemisphere). The airport is busy with people flying here and there, as all airports are. Because of the busy atmosphere, no one really notices SSX veteran Allegra Sauvagess walking through the airport, trying to find the gate she's supposed to be at.

Allegra received a message from Atomika on her new white MCOMM telling her to retrieve all of her bags and go to gate 33. As she approaches the gate, she sees no one else there, and wonders if she really is supposed to be here. "Eh, they'll come find me if I'm wrong." She puts her bags down and sits in one of the chairs, pulling out her Zune and a can of Pringles from her backpack.

About 15 minutes later, Allegra spots Zoe Payne walking toward the gate. When she arrives, they slap high-fives with each other happily.

"It's been a long time, huh," Zoe says.

"I know, it's been over 3 years already!" exclaims Allegra. "I thought the next competition would never come!"

Zoe sits down next to Allegra. "So, you got Atomika's message too?"

"Yeah, I was about to leave, but I decided to stay and see who else showed up. I guess everyone got the same message."

"Speaking of messages, isn't this new MCOMM awesome?"

"Yeah really, I haven't used it much, but I can already tell it's packed with features..."

Zoe and Allegra go on like this for about 5 more minutes, and then Zoe goes to the nearby Burger King for some food. They share a large fries and Allegra's Pringles, and about half an hour later, they see Viggo approaching.

"Hey Allegra, what's up?" he says as he sits next to her.

"What, am I invisible or something?"

"Oh. Hi Zoe." Viggo smiles apologetically.

About 30 seconds after Viggo, a young black-haired guy shows up at the gate. He's carrying a few snowboards on his back, and rolling the rest of his dark blue luggage.

"Is this where the SSX competitors are meeting?"

Allegra starts to talk, "Yeah. You new?"

Viggo cuts her off, "Hey, I know you! You're Zach right? I've seen you in a couple of the local competitions around my area. I guess SSX found you huh?"

Zach replies in his British voice. "Yep, that's me. Nice to see you again. I thought I saw you on the plane..." He turns to face the two girls. He can tell these are the tough girls of the competition. "Hi, I'm Zach. Zach Truman."

"Allegra."

"Zoe. Nice to meet you." She gets up and puts out her hand, and Zach shakes it.

"Pleasure to meet you too."

"Wait a minute..." Allegra interrupts. "Zoe, isn't Moby supposed to be with you?"

Zoe suddenly realizes Moby still isn't here yet. "You mean he's _STILL_ not back with the bags yet!? *sigh* Slow Brit..." She catches herself quickly. "No offense Zach."

"None taken."

"I'll be right back." Zoe leaves. About 15 minutes later, she returns with Moby.

"...and they couldn't find it!"

"Well it's your fault for losing the bag!"

"I already told you, the bloody cargo workers lost it!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever..." Zoe sits back down, Moby dropping the bags and sitting next to her. "Sorry, there was a little incident with my suitcase..." She glares at Moby angrily. He shrugs his shoulders defensively.

Zach introduces himself to Moby and vice versa, and the five chat for the next 3 hours. In that time, six others arrive: Elise, Tyson, Eddie, Carol, Kaori, and JP. Eddie introduces himself to those who don't know him (he gets along very well with Viggo), and Carol gets to know everyone. Allegra tries to ignore Elise, and JP just goes off in a corner by himself, feeling superior to everyone.

While Tyson's reading an Xbox Magazine, he randomly gets hit in the face with... a tuna sandwich? "Hey, what the he-"

"Your brother would have dodged that." Elise appears in front of Tyson out of nowhere. "He's got much better reflexes than you apparently..."

Tyson's annoyed. "I don't see what that has to do with- You just wasted a perfectly good tuna sandwich, what the hell!?"

Elise shrugs her shoulders. "Eh, I don't like tuna." She turns to walk away. "Tell your brother to give me a call sometime."

Tyson shakes his head and returns to his magazine, "And I thought JP was the random one..."

JP somehow hears his name. "Vut diid you seh!"

Tyson quickly defends himself, "Nothing! Nothing." He says in his head, 'Geez, would it kill you to learn proper English?'

Within the next hour, 4 more people show up: Shane, Seeiah, Psymon, and Brodi. There are more introductions, and Shane already starts to chat with Tyson about video games. Seeiah and Brodi get to know Allegra, Carol, and Viggo (those they haven't met before), and Psymon surprisingly sits in his chair quietly, playing God of War: Olympus for PSP.

Kaori whispers to Carol, "We will be _very_ lucky if he stays quiet like that..."

"He doesn't seem that bad," Carol whispers back.

"Oh you don't know the half of it..."

After another 15 minutes, Mac shows up, and Kaori gets ecstatic.

"Mac!!" Kaori nearly falls over as she jumps out of her seat without thinking and runs toward Mac.

She catches up to him and embraces him in a bear hug, nearly knocking him over. "Whoa girl, I didn't know you played tackle football!" They both laugh, and Mac hugs her back and they stay like that for quite a while, enjoying each other's warmth.

"I missed you so much, Mac, it's been an extremely long 3 years!"

They finally release each other. "That reminds me, you haven't answered your phone in like the past year, what's up?"

"Sit down, I'll tell you about it."

"Your English has gotten much better too."

"Yeah, I know."

The two walk over to gate 33 and sit down with the others. Mac introduces himself to the newbies, and Kaori starts telling Mac how she broke up with Sid. When she tells him about when she punched Sid, Mac gets surprised and ecstatic. "REALLY!? ...uh...ahem...ahem..umm...I-I mean, Really." Kaori chuckles. "Wow, heh, y-you sure showed him..." Mac says timidly, still embarrassed from his outburst.

"I wasn't about to do it too, but I felt I had just had enough. I mean come on, destroying my stuff? That's just too far."

Just then, a man with black spiky hair and dark sunglasses walks up to the 16 competitors. He has a half-eaten pretzel in his left hand. He raises his other hand and starts pointing at each person, moving his mouth. Apparently he's counting. He finishes and says, "Alright, let's wait for the last two to arrive." He walks away, taking a bite of his pretzel.

"Who's he?" Shane asks Tyson. Tyson just shrugs his shoulders.

**Part II A (Griff's Perspective)**

Griff Simmons yawns and stretches his arms as he exits the plane. Because of the time zone difference between California and New Zealand, he's still pretty tired. But he's kept himself awake on candy bars (just because he's not addicted anymore doesn't mean he doesn't still eat candy often). He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his MCOMM, and turns the Flight Mode off, re-enabling wireless communication. Suddenly his MCOMM beeps and a message appears on the screen:

"New Text Message from: Atomika. Press OK to view."

He touches the OK icon on the screen, and the text message pops up. It reads:

"To all SSX competitors: When you arrive, please retrieve your checked bags and go to gate 33. Thank you.

"Alright then..." Griff heads to Baggage Claim, and the conveyor starts moving just as he gets there. As he waits for his bags, he hears his MCOMM beep again. "*sigh* What is it now?" He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out, but there's nothing on the screen. "What the..." He looks up and around for a few seconds before he sees her.

A few people to Griff's left, there's a young girl with long, black hair and dark blue eyes. She's holding an MCOMM just like Griff's, but white instead of black. Griff gets slightly nervous, and can't help but stare for a few seconds before shaking his head vehemently in a 'snap out of it' sort of way. After retrieving all of his bags, he glances at her again, and stands there, thinking, 'Should I go talk to her? I mean she's in the competition too, and she looks about my age... But I don't want to look stupid, maybe I should wait until later...' His heart races even more rapidly. Still thinking, he sees her take her last bag and start to walk away. He hesitates a few seconds, then goes to catch up to her.

"Hey!" Griff shouts, but not loud enough to attract attention. She doesn't seem to hear him, and keeps walking. After about 10 more seconds, he catches up to and swings in front of her, but rather awkwardly.

"Hey, um... ...you're in SSX too?"

She stares at him for a second with the slightest interest. "Yeah." She starts to walk again.

"Cool, me too..." He gives a small nervous chuckle. 'Griff, what the hell did you just do, now she probably thinks you're a nutcase!' But he notices she's walking more slowly, like she's expecting him to try again. So he does just that. Catching up to her again, he tries to sound less stupid...and fails. "uh, I'm Griff..." He nervously puts out his hand. She turns to face him, looks into his eyes for a second, then smiles shyly and shakes his hand.

"Sarah. I'm new."

"Okay... ... ..." Another nervous chuckle. She starts to walk again. 'Man, say something, quick!'

"Can I walk with you?"

She turns around and gives Griff another cute smile. "Sure."

Griff just about feels like his insides are gonna melt.

**Part II B (Sarah's Perspective)**

Sarah Simmons slowly exits the plane, her light blue purse in her right hand, her PlayStation 3 on her left shoulder. She's nervous for two reasons. One, she doesn't know how the returning competitors will treat the newbies. Specifically her, because of her shy personality. And two, she has no idea where she's going. There wasn't a note or anything in the package that said what to do once at the airport. She decides to just gather her bags and see what happens after.

Sarah walks over to Baggage Claim, places her carry-on luggage on the ground, and waits for the conveyor to start. So many things are running through her mind. She's excited to be part of the competition, and to be able to snowboard alongside some of the best. 'But am I good enough?' She's seen the competition on TV at times, and has been wowed by the records that the competitors set on the difficult courses of BIG Mountain. 'I guess I'll just have to try my best and see where it gets me...'

As the conveyor starts moving, Sarah suddenly remembers, 'Ah, my MCOMM. Maybe that will tell me where to go.' She reaches for her purse and takes her MCOMM out. She presses the small button on top and the MCOMM logo flashes for a second, then the home screen appears. 3 seconds later, the MCOMM beeps and a message appears on the screen:

"New Text Message from: Atomika. Press OK to view."

She touches the OK icon on the screen and waves her head to the right to get her hair out of her eyes, and... 'wait, rewind...' She quickly glances to the right again, and she sees him.

A few people to Sarah's right, there's a young boy with a mess of blond hair and soft hazel eyes. 'Did I see him on the plane...?' He's reaching into his pocket, and he pulls out... 'an MCOMM! He must be an SSX competitor also. I wonder if-' She quickly turns her head back toward her MCOMM screen when he starts looking around. 'I hope he didn't see me staring...' Now she's got butterflies in her stomach. She reads the text message displayed on her screen:

"To all SSX competitors: When you arrive, please retrieve your checked bags and go to gate 33. Thank you.

'Oh, okay, good.' She lets out a small sigh of relief. 'I'm lucky I thought of it...'

She takes a quick glance to the right again, and sees that he's not looking anymore. She stares obliviously for a few seconds, and then sees her last bag come through. She grabs it up and walks away from Baggage Claim.

A few seconds later, she hears a "Hey!" come from behind her. Was it for her? Was it the blond boy? She didn't know, she pretends not to notice and keeps walking, still nervous. About 10 seconds later, someone runs up to her from behind and swings in front of her, rather awkwardly. 'Wait, it's the blond boy!'

"Hey, um... ...you're in SSX too?" he says with some hesitation.

Sarah feels about 10 times the butterflies now; she feels almost sick. 'What should I say? Is he hitting on me? No. He's probably just trying to help the newbie... Oh, what should I do?' She thinks all these thoughts in one second while staring at him, then decides to just answer and go from there. "Yeah," she says. She starts walking again, but very slowly, trying to buy time to think.

"Cool, me too..." He gives a small nervous chuckle. Thoughts are now racing through Sarah's mind. 'He seems a little nervous too, maybe he is hitting on me? I don't know...umm...I'll just keep walking and see if he follows.'

After a few more seconds, he does follow.

He catches up to her side again. "uh, I'm Griff..." he says, holding out his hand for her to shake. The butterflies double. She looks into his hazel eyes for a second, admiring them, before shyly smiling and nervously taking his hand.

"Sarah. I'm new," she manages to say. 'Sarah you idiot, he probably already knows you're new! Now he probably thinks you're weird...'

"Okay... ... ..." Another nervous chuckle. She starts to walk again, not wanting to leave him but too anxious to stay.

"Can I walk with you?"

She freezes. She feels like she'll throw up hundreds of butterflies any second. She somehow turns around and puts another shy smile on her face. "Sure," she says.

He runs up to meet her, and Sarah's heart is racing like an engine, her hands quivering a little. But Griff doesn't seem to notice...or maybe he just doesn't care.

**Part III**

About 45 minutes after Mac arrives, the last two walk up to gate 33. One is Griff, older and taller, but with the same blond mess on his head. The other is a newcomer with long, black hair.

"Hey Griff, wassup!" Mac gets up and he and Griff do a half-high-five,half-handshake sort of thing. "Wow man, I barely recognized you, if it wasn't for that mop on your head I would have thought you were a newbie!" He ruffles Griff's hair, and he gets annoyed, but only for a split second. He's just happy to be back.

"And what's your name?" Allegra says, looking at the newcomer.

She seems to snap out of a daze right then. "Oh...I'm Sarah. Sarah Simmons."

Viggo speaks up. "Hey Griff, she your cousin or something?"

Griff, still talking to Mac, turns his head towards Viggo. "No, why?"

"You mean you walked her all the way here and you don't even know she has the same last name as you!?" Viggo laughs loudly, Allegra and Zoe chuckle, and Eddie smiles in amusement. Griff feels like a retard, and Sarah's face turns red. Viggo continues, "No wonder you don't get girls!"

"Yeah thanks a lot, Mr. Ladies' Man."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The two continue arguing, and Sarah's just standing there, her face still red. Allegra gives her a 'Don't worry about it' look. Sarah smiles shyly and walks over to sit behind her, next to Kaori, who's listening to her Zune, oblivious to the arguing.

"Hi, I'm Kaori. Nice to meet you!" She puts out her hand.

"Sarah." She shakes her hand and smiles.

Griff and Viggo finally stop arguing, and Griff sits beside Sarah. He waves to Kaori, and she continues listening to her J-Pop music. Sarah feels butterflies again.

Right then, the black-haired man with the dark sunglasses walks up to the group again, this time holding a can of Cherry Coke in his right hand. "Ah, great, everyone's here now!" He claps his hands together. "So, everybody, are you guys ready?"

They all stare at him in confusion for a few seconds. Finally, Mac says, "Ready for what, exactly?"

"The fifth season of SSX of course! Why else are you all here?"

"Wait a minute." Allegra stands up and folds her arms on her chest. "First of all, who are you, and second of all, where are we going for this year's competition?"

Tyson jumps in. "Yeah, it's not even cold here, how are we gonna board?"

Kaori speaks up also. "And why are you wearing those sunglasses inside?"

"Hey, Kaori, you learned English!" the man says.

"That's not the point!" Allegra says, exasperated.

"Okay, okay. First of all, don't you guys recognize my voice? You know... He does a DJ imitation. "And, we're back with EA, Radio BIG."

The competitors all have blank faces.

"I'm Atomika!"

"Well it's no wonder we didn't recognize your voice." Zoe this time. "You sound totally different off the air."

"No I don't," Atomika protested.

"Yeah, you do," Griff chimes in.

"No I don't! I sound exactly the same!"

"NEXT QUESTION!" Allegra shouts.

Atomika smiles, as if amused. "Okay, so this year, we are going up North to BIG Mountain, just like the last 2 competitions."

Elise speaks up for the first time in a while. "So why did we bother flying all the way down here!?"

Atomika smiles again. "Because, then you guys wouldn't be able to enjoy the 'SSX Air' Private Jet!"

Shane is still confused, having never listened to Radio BIG before. "SSX A-"

"Everybody!" Atomika cuts Shane off. "Grab your bags and board the jet!"

The competitors pick up their suitcases and other things and start to walk through gate 33 to the jet.

"Oh, and Kaori!"

Kaori turns around to find Atomika looking at her.

"Why I wear these inside? They just make me look cool." He smiles.

Kaori shrugs her shoulders and turns around, boarding the jet with everyone else.

As they walk through the gateway, Zoe whispers to Allegra, "That guy's crazy, don't you think?"

Allegra smiles in disagreement. "I dunno..." She turns around to look at Atomika. "He's pretty clever, a little mysterious. He's probably almost in his 30s, but it's like he hasn't forgotten what it's like to be a teen... I like guys that are a little crazy, too." She smiles.

Zoe shrugs, puzzled. "Each to his own I guess..."

The first few boarders enter the jet, and they stop dead in their tracks. They stand there with their mouths gaping, and as the rest file in, everyone's just standing still, looking around in awe. Even Tyson is a little impressed.

"Hmm, not even my jet has all this..."

There's a huge plasma screen in the front of the cabin, with about 30 seats for viewers (or those playing the PS3, 360, or Wii hooked up to it). Behind that there's a huge circular game/eating table with 4 long, curved benches around it, and further back there's a clean bathroom, and a bedroom with about 10 beds for those who are tired. Behind that is the kitchen where all the meals are prepared, and you can't ignore the emergency exits along the sides of the plane. The carpet is red and thick, and the ceiling has multicolored fluorescent lights throughout.

Viggo notices a bar also. "Don't overdo it Allegra!" he says jokingly.

Allegra doesn't catch on for a second. "What are you ta- Hey!"

Viggo laughs.

"So..."

They all turn around to find Atomika leaning against the wall behind them. He took off his sunglasses, revealing his dark blue eyes.

"You guys like it?"

They all nod their heads in excitement.

"Well everybody, I guess just put your bags up and... go wild! Er-please, Psymon, don't take that literally..."

"What's that supposed to-"

"We should be taking off soon so... enjoy yourselves!"

With that, they were off. And about 10 minutes later, they were airborne.

Next Chapter: **Chapter Three: MCOMM Magic**


	4. MCOMM Magic

_(Commentary: Alright, Chapter 3 is up. It really should be called something like 'The MCOMM and The Magic' but 'MCOMM Magic' sounds better. This is just what happens on the airplane flight. Part I is kind of boring, I have to admit, so I made the characters act as bored as I was while I was writing it. Part II = Pure Awesomeness. It's the perfect combo of humor and romance, you'll enjoy it. Part III just finishes up the chapter, it turned out alright. Enjoy the story!)_

**Chapter Three: MCOMM Magic**

**Part I**

Two hours have passed on the 10-hour flight to BIG Mountain, and the SSX competitors are enjoying themselves. Tyson, Shane, Griff, Eddie, Mac, Allegra, Viggo, and Kaori are all taking turns playing multiplayer games on Wii. They're having a blast with games like WarioWare Smooth Moves and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Brodi, Carol, Psymon (still shockingly sane), Zoe, Moby, and Seeiah are having fun with board and card games like Sorry, Uno, and Scrabble. Elise is in the bedroom getting her 'beauty sleep', Zach and JP are in the kitchen sneaking food, regretting not buying food at the airport, and Sarah is sitting on the side of the cabin, staring out the window and daydreaming. Yep, they all seem to be enjoying themselves.

Suddenly, Atomika walks out of his small room, which sits in between the cockpit and the main cabin. He's carrying about 20 flat boxes of something, like pizza boxes except smaller and rectangular. He's struggling with them a little bit, but he works his way out.

"Okay, everyone." The gamers pause the Wii and everyone else turns to listen.

"Do all of you have your MCOMMs?"

Everyone nods in response.

"Good." He smiles usual smile of satisfaction. "Well, I have your MCOMM accessory packs!"

"So what do they do?" says Viggo.

"That's what I'm about to show you!" replies Atomika. "Now, everybody come get one." He puts the stacks of boxes on the ground. "Girls take from this stack, and Boys from this one."

The group crowds around and takes up the boxes.

"Why the different stacks?" asks Zach.

"Because, in case you haven't noticed, girls have white MCOMMs and boys have black ones."

"Ah." Zach hasn't seen any of the girls' MCOMMs yet.

"Can we trade MCOMMs if we want to switch colors?" Allegra asks.

"Not unless you want to dish out 50 bucks for a MCOMM data-switch mechanism."

"Damn. I wanted a black one..."

"No need for the language Allegra." Elise just got up from her beauty sleep.

"Oh, shut up Elise."

"Girls!" Atomika seems _a little_ annoyed. "Focus. Okay, everybody pull out your MCOMM."

The competitors pull out their black and white MCOMMs, and Atomika pulls out his glossy metallic silver MCOMM.

"Hey!" Mac this time. "Why do _you_ get a silver MCOMM?"

"It's the business version. It's for those who need to manage a business or event over a large network. In this case, I'm managing SSX."

"Hey, I want a large network! I'm talking to so many friends and family members all the time!"

"Me too," Carol adds. "I have a ton of family back in Ver-"

"FOCUS!" Atomika yells. "Sorry for that. But can we please get on with these accessory packs? I'm sure you all want to go back to your games. _Or your secret snacking..._"

Zach and JP have 'It wasn't me' looks on their faces.

"Okay. First of all, this thing." Atomika pulls out a power plug, but it has a magnet on the other end.

Shane is puzzled. "And how are you supposed to use this?"

"Easy!" He was obviously expecting the question. "You just..." he clips the magnet end to the back of the MCOMM. "...and there! You just plug it into an outlet and you've got magnetic charging!"

"Cool," Mac says half-sarcastically.

"Interesting..." mutters Seeiah.

"Okay next..." Atomika goes through a magnetic USB cable, wireless earbuds, magnetic A/V cable, and a bunch of other cool stuff.

"And last, we have this!" Atomika holds up a cable with magnets on both ends.

"And what is that?" Psymon says.

"This, here, is an MCOMM Update cable! Anyone happen to have their MCOMM 1.0 on them?"

Only Viggo raises his hand.

"I left mine at home," Griff says.

"Well you, Viggo, can transfer all your contacts from your old MCOMM. Now who has their 2.0?"

Allegra, Zoe, Tyson, and Kaori raise their hands.

"Well, you girls can...um, and guy..." Tyson gives Atomika a glare. "...can transfer all your contacts, music, photos, and whatever else you have on there.

"I was wondering how to do that..." Zoe says.

Atomika looks at everyone. "Okay, I can tell you're all bored to death, I'll leave you alone now." He puts away his accessories and returns to his room.

"Geez, I thought that would never end!" Eddie says.

Mac yawns. "That made me sleepy, I'm going to bed."

"Yeah, I need some rest, too," Zach says.

Those two and 6 others go sleep.

"Hey guys," Griff says to the rest. "Wanna play Uno?"

**Part II**

Five hours into the flight, it's dark outside. Mac's up from his sleep and watching a romance movie with Kaori. Playing Scrabble, Allegra's had a little too much to drink and swears 'photosynthesis' is spelled 'phoposinsis'. Brodi, Viggo, Elise, Zach, and Atomika try to convince her otherwise. Griff's asleep in a chair, and Sarah's still thinking to herself. The other 9 are asleep in the beds.

"I'm telling you Allegra, photosynthesis has a 'y' in it!" shouts Zach.

"And I'm telling you, you're crazy!" Allegra fails to cooperate. "You Italians spell everything stupid anyway!!"

"I'm British you-"

"Man, Allegra, I told you not to overdo it..." Viggo complains.

"Who you callin' a man!?"

"What!? I didn't-"

"My God can't we just kick her out of the game!?" Elise yells, extremely annoyed.

"You need to cool it you son of a-"

"Hey, watch it!" Atomika this time.

"You know what? SCREW ALL OF YOU!!"

With that Allegra collapses into a chair, too drunk to notice the blond sleeping on it.

"Hey, get the hell off me!" Griff shouts.

"Why'd you sit under me then!?"

Brodi just keeps calm somehow.

Sarah laughs a little at the whole situation, then continues to get lost in her thoughts. After about another 2 minutes, she hears someone walk toward her. She looks up. It's Griff.

A wave of anxiety washes over her. "Oh...hey Griff...I'm just here...um...thinking..." The words just aren't coming out, and she knows she's making a fool of herself in front of him. Embarrassed, she turns back toward the window.

"Yeah um, I just.....needed to, uh...get away from the madness..." He really doesn't know what to say either.

Sarah looks in the direction of the still arguing group. Then she looks up at Griff. She gives him her shy smile, then turns back toward the window, blushing.

Griff just can't get enough of that cute shy smile. He stares at her in wonder, at her innocent beauty...

Desperate for her to look at him again, he sits down next to her and softly rests his hand on her shoulder. He feels his hand vibrating nervously. 'Man, I haven't shaken this much since I was breaking my sugar addiction...'

Sarah feels Griff's hand and tenses up her shoulder, then relaxes, sensing he's shaky also. More comfortable, she turns back toward him, and the two stare into each other's eyes for about 20 long seconds, no longer nervous, both smiling, both lovestruck. Finally Griff breaks the silence.

"Your eyes are beautiful," he whispers.

Sarah blushes more and turns away for a second. Then she turns back. Griff starts to lean toward her, eyes half-closed in a dreamy way, and she gradually shuts her eyes. Then, their eyes fully closed, their lips meet...

But only for a split second.

Griff is suddenly yanked away by his hood.

Shoot. So close.

"Yo Allegra! What the he-"

"Get your ass over here and tell these people, that, photosynthesis has a 'y' in it!!!"

Zach jumps off of the bench. "That's what we were trying to tell _you_!!!" he yells.

"Nuh uh you people were trying to say there's an 's' in there!"

"THERE'S THREE!"

Viggo slams his fist down on the table. "Ahhh!!! I'm tired of this!!!" He jumps up, storms into the kitchen, and slams the door.

"Fine! I don't want you anyway!" screams Allegra toward the doorway.

"Oh geez..." Griff slaps his palm to his face.

"*sigh* You see what you do Allegra!?" Elise is enraged at this point.

"Oh yeah!? Well at least I'm not a sl-"

"HEY!!!"

Both girls stop to find Atomika glaring at both of them. He's clearly had enough. He gets up and holds Allegra by the shoulders. Calmly and desperately, he says, "Allegra. Please, just sit down, be quiet, take a nap, and sober up. _Please._"

Now unusually calm, she obeys quietly and falls asleep the minute she hits the chair.

Griff lets out a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over! I thought she would end up on a killing rampage or something!"

"I'm gonna go watch Iron Man, who's with me?" Zach walks over to the theater area. Elise and Brodi follow. Atomika grabs a drink and relaxes on the bench next to Allegra's chair. 'Wow, good thing I decided to soundproof the bedroom walls...'

Griff turns around toward Sarah, and he finds her staring at him, as if in a daze. He shrugs his shoulders apologetically and mouths, "I'm sorry." She continues to stare and shyly smiles at him. She knows he loves the smile. Griff feels his insides melting again, and he smiles back. They stare at each other for another few seconds before she turns back toward the window, as if snapping out of her daze.

Griff, still standing by the game table, feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns around and finds Mac standing behind him.

"Hey Mac, how's it going?"

"I'm alright, just finished watching a movie."

Mac glances over Griff 's shoulder at Sarah, still staring out the window. He returns his eyes to Griff and whispers, "You like her don't you?"

Griff catches on right away. "I don't just like her............I _love_ her..." He pauses for a moment and sighs. "Mac, how do you do it? You can talk to Kaori like you're talking to me right now. Whenever I try to talk to Sarah all my words get choked up and-"

"Don't worry about it man, it's normal. I think girls like that anyway. Hey, it's better than being completely oblivious Viggo."

They both laugh softly. "Yeah, that's true."

Mac stretches and returns to his normal volume. "Well, I'm hungry, I'm gonna go get somethin' to eat."

"Alrighty then."

Mac leaves. Griff glances at Sarah one more time, then goes to watch Iron Man with the others.

**Part III**

The SSX Air Private Jet is about 15 minutes from Metro City Airport, and the SSX competitors are wrapping up their activities. Atomika sits in a chair behind the game table with a clipboard in his hand. He's writing, thinking, erasing, writing, thinking some more... He must be doing something important.

Carol is curious. "Hey Atomika, what's that you're doing?"

He looks up from his clipboard. "Oh, hey Carol. I'm just finishing up these roommate assignments. I've spent the past hour trying to create an arrangement that would reduce chances of any conflicts. I think I've just about..." His voice trails off. He quickly erases something.

"How do figure who goes with who?"

"Well, I look at two things: friends and personality. For example, Mac and Griff seem friendly, so I put them together. But if someone can't bunk with his/her friend, due to something like gender difference, I look at the person's personality and see who has a similar personality, or who would be most likely to start a friendship with that person. Aha! I've got it!"

"Great! Well, I can't wait to find out who my roommate is!" Carol walks away to start gathering her stuff.

"Hey, has anyone seen my 'fro pick?" Eddie, obviously.

"Well where did you have it last?" says Elise.

"Well I was combing my hair, and then...oh, wait a minute..." He digs into the back of his afro. "Found it! Man, I knew I shouldn't have bought the orange one..."

"Hey, have any of y'all seen my MCOMM?" Mac searches through his bag. "I swear it was in my pocket the whole time!"

"Well try calling it and see where it is." Zoe says.

"Hey Atomika, can I call my MCOMM on the plane?"

"I don't see why not. No one here has a pacemaker right?"

Kaori pulls out her MCOMM and sends a message to Mac. After about 3 seconds, there's a beep over by the theater area, where Griff and Zach are playing Call of Duty 4.

"Griff!"

Griff turns around, and sees Mac's angry glare. Griff jumps up and makes a run for the bathroom.

"Oh, you're _so_ getting a Smackdown!" He runs after him.

"Nobody considers that a threat anymore Mac..."

"Oh shut it Allegra!"

Atomika looks up. "Hey guys, quit running in the plane!" They continue chasing each other. "If you break something you have to buy it!" They both freeze. "Mac....you can give him a Smackdown later. Right now everyone's gotta settle down so we can land. Sit somewhere, preferably in the theater seats."

Everyone takes a seat, and about 10 minutes later, they land on the slick runway at Metro City Airport. It's about 10 AM and the competitors stare out the window at the fresh white powder falling from the sky, excited to be back at BIG Mountain.

As the SSX Air Private Jet pulls up to the gate, Atomika puts his dark sunglasses back on and becomes the enthusiastic host again. He opens the plane door, and the cool air rushes inside. "Alright everybody, let's head out! The sooner we get done with everything the sooner you all can eat breakfast!"

"Good, 'cause I'm starving!" says Shane.

Tyson has a shocked look on his face. "How can you be hungry!? You just had 3 slices of pizza on the plane!"

Shane shrugs his shoulders.

As Griff exits the plane, he passes by Sarah. She smiles at him again, and he smiles back for a few seconds before Mac comes up from behind, throws Griff's hood over his head and face, and pulls his strings all the way tight. "Ahh! I can't see!"

"I told you you were getting a Smackdown!" Mac laughs. He then looks at Sarah. She looks back at him, and Mac gives her a thumbs up. She responds with the same. 'And I thought they wouldn't be nice to the newbies...' She chuckles at the thought.

Seeiah's walking next to Brodi. "Well," she says, " you ready to get back in the snow?" She pats him on the back.

"It'll be an experience, that's for sure, " Brodi replies. Seeiah nods in agreement.

Kaori's lugging her heavy, stuffed suitcases behind her, Mac too oblivious to help her. As she's walking, Psymon ends up walking up beside her. He turns and glances at her with a blank expression, and Kaori's frightened for a moment. Then he walks away, and she breathes a sigh of relief. 'What was that all about? Did I do something?' She's just happy Psymon is leaving her alone.

So the 18 SSX competitors happily enter Metro City Airport, anticipating all the fun they'll have during this year's competition.

Next Chapter: **Chapter Four: First Days  
**


	5. First Days

_(Commentary: Ha, and I thought Chapter 1 would be the longest Chapter... I bet you thought so too... But hey, lucky for you readers, this one is LONG, but in a good way, meaning A LOT of things happening. It's almost 80% longer than Chapter One, but it might as well be 3 chapters in one. This takes place over 3 days, Parts I and II being one day, Part III the next day, and Part IV the third day. Parts III and IV have multiple sections with different things going on, so it's not dragging on about the same people the whole time. I hope you enjoy it! Man, the last section of Part IV was really hard to get right...)_

**Chapter Four: First Days**

**Part I**

It's a bright morning in Downtown Metro City, and the fresh powder floating down to the ground makes it feel like a winter wonderland. On the streets, there are many different cars and buses and snowmobiles going this way and that, but one stands out from the rest. A Metro City Snow Bus with a huge SSX decal on the side is navigating the icy streets, heading toward the Downtown Boarder's Lodge. Aboard the bus are the 18 SSX competitors, ready to take on the challenges of this year's season. But right now, they're just relaxing and enjoying the view, enjoying their return to BIG Mountain.

As the bus gradually slows to a halt, the SSX competitors can see the Boarder's Lodge, and already are impressed. They can't wait to get inside.

"Alright guys, we're here!" says Atomika enthusiastically

"Finally, my foot's fallen asleep!" Zoe stands up and stretches.

"Zoe, it was only a fifteen minute ride..." says Allegra

"I don't do well with little leg room. You do _not_ want to be me on a coach-class airplane flight..."

"Okay, so everyone get your bags and head into the main lobby. I'll set you all up there."

The competitors grab their luggage from under the bus, and head toward the revolving door at the entrance. Mac and Eddie are the first ones to enter.

"Wow," Eddie says. "I already like BIG Mountain."

"They've spiced this place up a bit since last time, huh?" Mac says, noticing the new lobby furniture and plush carpeting.

The rest of the competitors file into the lobby, and stand there admiring the arctic-themed lobby. Atomika then enters, and walks up to the front desk. He talks with the front desk man for a few minutes, then walks back toward the competitors holding quite a number of items.

"What _is_ all that!?" say Viggo and Carol in unison.

"Everybody take a seat and I'll tell you guys." Everyone makes themselves comfortable on the couches and chairs, anxious to enjoy the rest of their day.

"C'mon Atomika, out with it!" says Moby.

"Okay okay. First of all, these are your mountain maps." He hands out pamphlets to everyone. "This map shows you the layout of BIG Mountain, where everything is and the paths of the different courses, all that good stuff. Of course, your MCOMM can show-"

"Oh my God!" Kaori suddenly outbursts, staring open-mouthed at her map. Atomika smiles.

"What is it Kaori!?" Mac says. He opens the map, and he too stares at it in shock. "What!!!"

Everybody else quickly opens his/her map to see what's so shocking. They all stare in amazement.

"TWELVE PEAKS!?" Zach exclaims.

"Yep!" Atomika smiles some more. "We spent the past 3 years expanding BIG Mountain, working night and day to give you over 60 mind-blowing tracks! We definitely want to-"

"Wait a minute!" Seeiah this time. "Snowdream? Merqury City? Alaska? I thought-"

"Yep!" Atomika says again. "We re-built ALL of the tracks from seasons 1 and 2, right here on BIG Mountain!"

"No way man!!" says Eddie. "I loved these tracks! Especially Merqury City!"

"Not only is Merqury City a course, we made it an actual city, just like here in Metro City!"

"Awesome!" Tyson says.

"Alright, if you all are done with that, I'd like to present the next item, your room keys!" He holds up 18 magnetic cards, and passes one out to everyone. "Those keys have your name and room number on them, so you really can't mix 'em up. And, it tells you your roommate!"

Mac's sitting to the left of Griff, and glances at both their cards. "Well Grommet, looks like you'll be seeing me a lot!"

"What! We're roommates!?"

Zoe and Allegra match their room numbers. "Alright!" They high-five.

Shane and Tyson also match room numbers. "Sweet man!" Tyson says. "We're roommates!"

"Wow, and you have ALL 3 game systems? This'll be awesome!"

Sarah finds that Kaori is her roommate. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you, Kaori," she says happily.

"Same here!"

The other pairs are Seeiah/Carol, Zach/Moby, JP/Brodi, and Viggo/Eddie. Elise and Psymon get their own rooms. Elise isn't complaining, Psymon couldn't care less.

"Alright guys, you can hang out with your roommates later. Now for the last-"

"Hey!" Allegra yells. "What happened to our bags!?"

"Relax Allegra" Atomika says. "They've been taken to your rooms already."

"Oh, good."

JP outbursts in French. "Why do I have to be stuck with HIM?" pointing to Brodi.

Atomika understands French, a little. "Calm down, just because you're roommates doesn't mean you have to be best buds. I'm sure Brodi doesn't want to fight with anyone, that's why I did it. Just set up your own room and everything and chill out."

"And why didn't I get a roommate?" Elise says, just curious. "Is there a specific reason?"

"Ummm..... Okay, last item! Your hi-tech board goggles!" He gives everyone a pair of ordinary-looking boarding goggles.

"And how are these so hi-tech?" Shane says, putting them on.

"Press the button on the side."

Shane presses the small green button on the goggles. "WHOA!" He exclaims. Suddenly, his MCOMM beeps.

"That's how. Those goggles wirelessly connect to your MCOMM to give you a Heads-Up Display during an event! It shows your adrenaline meter, score, current time, and current position, and projects it right in front of you while you're boarding, while maintaining clear visibility!"

"WOW." Griff is amazed.

"And since the MCOMM controls everything, the goggles don't have much of anything other than the projector mechanism, allowing the goggles to be lightweight and slim just like regular goggles! And best of all... Mac, cover that light sensor on top of your goggles."

His goggles light up instantly with a bright neon glow. "Oh, now _that's_ sweet!"

All the boarders are enthusiastic. New courses, new goggles, new roommates! This has to be the best season ever!

"Alright guys, come with me." Atomika walks over to a large automatic door leading to another room. The competitors follow. "I gotta show you guys one more thing."

"What?" Zach complains. "But you said the goggles were the last..." His voice trails off as he enters the room, the huge, awesome room. The other competitors stand and stare in awe, mouths hanging open.

"Welcome to the new lounge!" Atomika says enthusiastically. They are standing in an enormous room, the ceiling about 2 stories above them. There's a huge plasma screen TV on one wall, complete with all three game systems and HD television service. There's a breakfast/lunch area in one corner, and the aromas of fresh bread and bacon and coffee and other breakfast foods somehow fill the enormous room. In another corner there's a brand new DanceDanceRevolution X machine, it's speakers blasting, with Tekken and Racing games and GuitarFreaks and a whole bunch of other arcade machines in that area. In the center there are many chairs and couches and tables where the competitors can sit and chat and relax and play games and do whatever.

"Well, what do you think?" Atomika says.

No one can speak for a few seconds. Finally Viggo says, "This beats the plane by a _longshot_."

"Glad you guys like it. Now, I'm gonna go fix up my boards, you guys can-"

"How are you gonna snowboard if you're doing Radio BIG and managing the whole competition?" says Zach.

"Oh, is that another thing I didn't tell you guys? I'm gonna be boarding with all of you!"

"WHAT!" They all look at Atomika in shock.

"Why do you think I need a Silver-Edition MCOMM? I'm gonna be doing the Radio BIG broadcast and everything while riding!"

"You must be amazing to be able to multitask like that!" Allegra says.

"Yeah. I know." He smiles warmly at her. "So, you guys can take the next few days to hang out, relax, get acquainted with roommates and friends, and you can check out the mountain. The first race of the season starts in 3 days, so be prepared!" He turns around to walk away, then stops. "Oh yeah, one more thing. No boys in girls' rooms or vice versa from 11 PM to 6 AM. Do I _really_ need to explain?" They shake their heads. "I didn't think so. See you guys!" He leaves the room.

It's quiet for a few seconds. Then, the competitors leave the lounge and head toward their rooms to unpack their stuff, exited about everything this year's competition has to offer.

**Part II**

Mac walks over to the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. "Nice, these rooms come stocked!" He grabs a soda, closes the door, grabs some chips off of the counter, and hops on the dark blue couch in the living room area. The competitors got to their rooms an hour ago, and the rooms are perfect. There's a small living room area with a couch and coffee table, facing a 42" plasma TV. Next to the living room is the small kitchen, containing everything you would find in a normal kitchen. Then, there are the two bedrooms, and fortunately a bathroom for each bedroom. The whole room is a greenish-blue color, creating a cool, relaxed feel.

Mac finishes his chips and soda and flips on the TV. "Hey Griff! You finished unpacking yet?"

"Almost!" says Griff from his bedroom.

"Okay then, let me know when so we can go riding already!" On TV there's a rerun of House, and Mac sits and watches it for about 5 minutes before Griff walks out of his room. He's wearing a light-blue hoodie with 'GRIFF' on the front in a red stencil-like font, and dark blue pants with black shoes. He's carrying a black, blue, and white board.

"You ready?"

"Yeah, hold on a sec." Mac goes in his room and comes out a few seconds later, wearing his black Infiltrator hoodie and Panther pants, with black shoes. His FBX Galaxy board is cradled under his arm.

"Same old gear, huh Mac?"

"Let's just go..."

Mac and Griff grab their room keys off of the coffee table and head out the door.

"Hey Griff, what board is that anyway?"

"It's a new board I got, called 'Vortexxed'. Like it?"

"It's interesting."

The two are about halfway down the hallway when Mac has an idea. "Hold up, why don't we see if the girls want to come boarding with us?"

"What girls?"

"Kaori and Sarah, _duh_."

"Oh, right..."

They walk back and knock on the door to the right of theirs. Kaori says "Hold on a second!" from inside.

"So Griff, what happened last season? Were you grounded or something?"

"Well, I was doing so much SSX that I was really falling behind on my schoolwork, so my parents didn't let me do the next season. But it's my senior year now, and I took half of my senior classes in the summer already, so now I don't have to-"

Kaori swings open the door. "Oh hi Mac, hi Griff! What brings you here?"

"Well, Griff here wants a date, and-"

"What!?"

Mac laughs. "I'm just kiddin' dawg!" He turns back to Kaori. "Griff and I were gonna go riding, maybe head up to Garibaldi or Snowdream before checking out some of the new tracks. We wanted to know if you girls want to come with us."

"Well, we're not really doing anything. Alright, I'll get Sarah and we'll meet you in the lounge!"

"Alright, we'll be waiting."

Kaori closes the door, and Mac and Griff walk into the lounge. They take a seat in one of the couches.

Griff looks toward the arcade corner. "Man, I _have_ to try out that DDR machine when we get back."

Mac raises an eyebrow. "You like that game? Isn't it full of J-Pop and Techno music that nobody likes?"

"It's very good music, thank you very much."

Mac shrugs. "Whatever, Grommet."

A few minutes later, Kaori and Sarah walk into the lounge. Kaori's wearing tight-fitting blue-jeans with a puffy pink coat on top, light blue shoes, and carrying a pink and black board. Sarah's got a light blue sweater and black snowpants, white shoes and a metallic silver board with black stripes.

"Interesting outfit, Kaori," Griff says. Mac elbows him in the side. "Ow!" Sarah laughs a little.

Kaori pretends not to hear. "So, are you guys ready?"

Mac gets up. "Ready as we'll ever be! Vamos!"

Kaori has a puzzled look on her face.

"It means Let's go!"

"Oh!" The four start walking toward the lobby. "Come on Mac, I'm still struggling with English, don't try to teach me a third language!"

Mac laughs. "I don't know what you're talking about, your English is fine! Excellent, even! Besides, that's about the only Spanish I know."

Kaori laughs.

They walk out of the Boarder's Lodge and down the snow-covered sidewalk toward the transport station. It's stopped snowing already.

"So, Sarah..." Griff is attempting small talk. "How long have you been snowboarding?"

Sarah turns toward him. "Hmm... Only about 2 years."

Griff is surprised. "Really? How'd you get so good then?"

"Well, I _have_ done skiing since I was young. I decided a couple of years ago to try out snowboarding. Now I prefer it to skiing."

"Well, ya made the right choice! Skiing is _so_ overrated!"

Sarah chuckles a bit. "Well, I could probably beat you on either..."

"What?! Did you just-" Sarah laughs with her hand over her mouth. "Oh, now it's on!" Griff grabs snow off of the ground, balls it up, and tosses it toward her arm.

She squeals playfully, then balls up some snow of her own and throws it at his face.

"Hey!"

She laughs some more.

After a couple more throws it becomes a playful snowball fight.

"Alright, cool it you kids," Mac says.

"Who you callin' kids, Mackenzie?"

"Oh, you did _not_ just- Do you need another Smackdown!?"

Griff chuckles. "Relax, Mac. I'm just kidding."

The four continue walking toward the station, Sarah and Griff lagging behind a little because of the snowball fight. Almost out of nowhere, Griff, with his free hand, gently takes Sarah's hand in his. She's a little startled by it, but doesn't resist, and she works her fingers in between his. They walk with their hands clasped for the rest of the way to the station.

Once at the station, the four find an available helicopter and climb in.

"Where to?" the pilot asks.

Mac quickly opens up his map. "Delta, Peak 1," he says.

"You got it!" The pilot lifts off once everyone's inside.

Sarah's never been in one of these before. "Wow, it's like a helicopter, but it's got to be able to hold, I dunno, at least 8 people."

"And," Griff adds, "we get an aerial view of the whole mountain!"

"Hold on, Grommet," says Mac. "They've added to BIG Mountain, we probably can't see the whole thing now."

"Yeah, true..."

Sarah looks at Griff curiously. "Grommet?"

"It's my nickname."

"That's cute." She smiles at him.

"Yeah..." He smiles back.

After about another minute, Griff pulls a small dual-screen device out of his pocket and starts it up.

"You brought your DSi with you...?" says Mac.

"Yep, imported all the way from Japan! It's awesome the way it can-"

"Dude, that's not the point! We can play video games back at the Lodge; right now we have the aerial scenery to watch, and we have two very interesting ladies to talk to. C'mon..."

"Sheesh, you sound like my mom. Whatever..." He presses the power button, closes it, and returns it to his pocket.

"And _what_ exactly do you mean by _interesting_, Mac?" Kaori says.

"... ... Well... We have a lot to talk about, right? I'm saying you're not boring..."

Kaori chuckles a little. "You saved yourself this time, Mac! Next time you might not be so lucky..."

"Oh C'mon Kaori, you know I'd never insult you!"

Kaori laughs some more. "Yeah, I know, I'm just kidding."

After about 10 more minutes, the helicopter arrives at the peak. "Alright, here's your stop!"

"Thanks, man, see you later!" Mac hops off the copter, and the other three follow.

Mac's got his board strapped on before the others, and he stands still, admiring the view. "Ah, good old Snowdream. This brings me back..."

Griff is puzzled. "Mac, I've seen Snowdream on TV years ago, this doesn't look anything like it..."

"Dude, the course structure is almost the same. It's only different because it's not a night-only course anymore, and they made it a backcountry course now, so there's gonna be a lot more on either side of the main track."

"Oh, OK. That makes sense."

"Man, Griff, you really are a blond aren't you..."

Kaori chuckles a little. Sarah can't help but feel a little bad for him. "Don't worry about it, Griff, it happens to everyone..."

Griff picks his head up. "Yeah, you're right. Besides, I have a ton of things to make fun of Mac about." They both laugh.

Mac turns around. "What'd you say Griff?"

"Uhhh I said, Let's go! Last one to Garibaldi buys lunch!" His board strapped on already, he starts racing down the course, Sarah right next to him.

"Man, that's _so_ elementary school!" Mac starts following the two, and Kaori jumps in right behind Mac.

As Mac clears the first jump, he spots Griff and Sarah carving through the first curve. He and Kaori keep low to the ground on the drops and try to build up speed.

Sarah doesn't know the course, she's just going wherever Griff is going. After the first curve, Griff spots a felled tree and hops on it, cutting across the next curve, and Sarah follows. Griff turns around and sees Mac and Kaori coming up close behind. "Oh crap..." He sails off the jump and performs a quick 720 Experimental to gain some adrenaline. He turns around again and sees the two even closer now. "What? How did they...?" He and Sarah crouch, preparing for the next jump, gaining speed. Once airborne, Griff does a Double Misty with a Melancholy, and Sarah does a 900 Tailgrab. He hits the ground and looks back again, and he sees Mac doing a 720 Kickin A, Kaori behind him about to make the jump. "Mac, quit showing off!" But he also notices the two aren't getting much closer, and he calms down a bit, concentrating more on the track. As he zooms toward the next jump, Griff turns toward Sarah. "C'mon, let's crush these two!"

"Griff, it's only practice..."

"I know, but I don't like losing to Mac either way. Cool snowboard by the way!"

"Thanks!" They both turn back toward the course and pick up speed as they launch off the next jump...

It goes on like this – Mac and Kaori trailing Griff and Sarah by a few seconds – for most of the track, up until around the last jump. Mac pulled ahead of Griff, but ends up losing his board in the air in the middle of a Scooter. "Aw, dammit!" He plummets to the ground and faceplants in the powder.

Griff bursts out laughing. "Ha! Let me show you how it's done, Mac!" He launches off the jump, executes a perfect 360 Scooter, and makes a smooth landing as he heads to the end of the course. He turns around toward Mac, still laying in the snow. "Oh yeah! You can't touch this!"

Mac gets up and spits out a mouthful of snow. "You got lucky this time, Grommet!"

Sarah then nails a perfect Front Flip Svelton off of the jump, landing a few feet in front of Mac, and slows to a stop at the end of the track. "Wow, I like Snowdream." Kaori comes up behind her a few seconds later. Mac is still recovering from the fall.

"That was a perfect Svelton Sarah!" says Griff enthusiastically. "Nice job!"

"Thanks, you had an excellent Uber too! Was that your signature?"

"Yeah, it's called Scooter. Mac taught it to me back in the third season, but now he's probably jealous that I can do it better than..." He looks back toward the spot where Mac wiped out, finding him not there. "Hey, where'd he-"

In a split second, Griff finds himself in a headlock.

"Oh, you think you're so much better than me, huh?" Mac swings Griff around by his head a little bit.

"Get the hell off me Mac! Ahhh!"

"Man, I'm just playin' with ya!" He lets his grip go. Griff starts rubbing his neck, an annoyed look on his face.

"C'mon Griff, we're cool right?"

Griff can't really be mad at Mac, he was only playing around. "Yeah, we're cool." They slap high-fives.

"Mac, you really shouldn't be so rough..." Kaori says, concerned.

"Nah, Don't worry Kaori," Griff says. "He doesn't mean any harm."

"Thanks, Grommet. And awesome Scooter... er- I mean Sugar Rush!"

"Just call it Scooter, Mac. I'm not sugar-crazy anymore."

"OK Griff. Now c'mon, let's head to Garibaldi!"

The four strap on their boards and start towards Garibaldi, the next race course on the peak.

They pass by a small lodge while going through the connector. Griff can smell food. "Hey guys, anyone want lunch before we hit Garibaldi? Mac's buyin'!"

"What? Oh come on, you were serious? Man, I don't have any cash on me!"

Sarah and Kaori start laughing.

"I'm kidding, Mac, I'm not really hungry anyway..."

After another minute the four ride up to the starting gates of Garibaldi. There they find Eddie strapping on his board.

"Hey, Eddie!" Mac shouts. "What's up?"

"Nothin' much, I was just gonna time myself down Garibaldi. Wanna race with me?"

Kaori walks up to them. "Well, we just finished racing down Snowdream, and Mac just had a bad faceplant..."

"Did you _have_ to-"

"I think we'll just cruise down this course. That okay?"

"Sure. Well, I'll see you guys later then." He starts the timer on his MCOMM and launches out of the start gate.

Mac stretches his arms. "So, what're we gonna do? Are we just cruising down this one?"

Griff has an idea. He glances toward Sarah. "Hey, this first jump is really big, why don't we show each other our Signature Ubers? Sarah hasn't seen yours, and I can't quite remember Kaori's..."

"No, you probably don't," Kaori says bluntly.

Griff is slightly exasperated. "_Anyway..._ and then Sarah can show us hers! What do you say Sarah?"

She bites her lower lip in thought. "Okay, I don't see why not..."

"Great!" Mac quickly straps on his board. "I'll go first! Watch me walk this dog!"

Kaori shakes her head and whispers to Sarah, "He's always like this, you just have to get used to it..." Sarah gives a small chuckle.

The three head toward the jump to watch Mac perform his Uber. He launches off the jump and does a tailgrab. Then, unstrapping his snowboard, he does a handstand, then springs back, kicks his board so it spins clockwise, and does a counter-clockwise 360. To finish it off, he kicks his board again, spinning it like a Paddle Wheel, then re-attaches his feet to his board. He finishes a few seconds early, and quickly adds a Flying Squirrel before hitting the snow and slowing to a stop.

He reaches for his MCOMM, wakes it from sleep, and enters Push-to-Talk mode. He selects Griff, touches the Talk icon and brings the device to his ear. "Alright Griff, your turn."

Meanwhile, the other three are standing back on top of the jump.

"Wow, that was pretty cool," Sarah says. "I like the ending."

"Well obviously he has to add a grab there, just to show off..."

Sarah looks at Kaori curiously. "For being his partner you don't seem to have too much good to say about him..."

Kaori smiles. "Oh, the good definitely outweighs the bad. It's just most of the good doesn't show out here on the snow..."

Griff hears a click from his MCOMM, then Mac's voice. "Alright Griff, your turn."

He takes out his MCOMM and touches the talk icon. "Roger that. Over."

"Griff... Don't do that."

"Whatever, Mac."

He puts the device away and goes back toward the starting gates. About 20 seconds later, he launches off the cliff. Beginning with a tailgrab, he raises his right leg, bending it at a right angle. Then, he pushes his board off his feet with his right hand and carefully rotates his board over and under the upper part of his right leg. After about five seconds, he swings his feet to the side and throws them back into the board, and adds a front flip before landing. He slows and pulls up next to Mac. Mac nods in satisfaction, then touches the Talk icon next to Kaori's name. "You're up Kaori. Show us your moves!"

Kaori pulls out her white MCOMM and touches the Talk icon. "Mac... Don't do that."

"Sorry..."

Kaori turns toward Sarah, smiling cleverly. "They'll be in for a shock..."

Sarah shrugs and watches Kaori as she returns to the gates, preparing for the jump. Kaori rockets past her and launches off the jump, getting more air than the two boys did.

'Perfect.' she thinks as she starts her trick with a tailgrab. She pulls her feet from the board and swings upside-down, performing a one-handed handstand with a counter-clockwise 1080. She then springs off her hand, flips over, and performs a small clockwise pirouette spin before thrusting her feet back into the straps. She makes a smooth landing and slows down to stop in front of Mac. He has a shocked expression on his face.

"Daaaaaaaaaaang, girl..."

"They don't call me 'Tricky' Nishidake for nothing!"

"Nice one Kaori!" exclaims Griff, taking out his MCOMM. He touches the Talk icon by Sarah's name. "Alright, Sarah, let's check out your skills!"

"Griff... Don't-"

"Yeah, I know, I know..."

After about 30 more seconds, the three see Sarah fly off the cliff. She slides her feet out of her straps and twirls in the air, then she and her board start to descend quickly, her hair whirling wildly.

Griff panics for a second. 'Is she falling!? Wait... No. She's staying with her board. She's got control. Wow, _awesome trick_...' He calms down and continues to watch.

Almost to the ground, she somehow skillfully swings her feet toward her board and locks them in the straps, then straightens herself out as she hits the ground. She slows to a stop and shifts her hair out of her eyes.

Mac nods his head, and Griff stares at her in amazement, a huge grin on his face.

"What do you call _that_?"

"Destiny Freefall."

"WOW..."

Mac smiles. "Nice trick you've got there, I never saw anything like it. Shoot, I probably wouldn't be brave enough to even try that..."

Kaori laughs a little. "Ooh, the _big bad Mac Fraser_ can't handle a little freefall, huh?"

"Oh, and you're saying you would-"

"Guys!" Griff interrupts. He turns toward Sarah. "So, how'd you come up with that Uber?"

"Well... I felt I had to come up with something unique... I have broken my right arm 3 times practicing it, but I think it was worth it."

"Ouch..." Kaori winces. "I'd be out after the first..."

"Oh, who's scared now, huh?" Mac replies.

"Hey, at least I would have tried-"

"SHUT UP!" Griff yells. "Geez, you two are worse than me and my sister... *sigh* So, we're just cruising down from here?"

"Yeah, that's good," says Mac. "After this I want to head back to the Lodge, I'm tired. We can check out the new tracks tomorrow."

"Mac, you're _always_ tired..."

"Kaori!" Mac has an annoyed expression.

Kaori laughs a little. "Oh, stop it, you know I love you, Mac." She kisses him lightly on the cheek. "OK then, let's go!"

She takes off down the course, and Mac follows. Griff and Sarah follow a few seconds later.

Sarah glances at Griff, who's enjoying the peaceful scenery of Garibaldi. '*sigh*, if only...'

**Part III**

It's almost 1 PM on BIG Mountain, and most of the competitors are hanging out in the lounge. It's the day after they arrived, and everybody's enjoying their free time. Mac, Kaori, Griff, and Sarah are out on the snow again, exploring the brand-new tracks on Mountain Omega. Shane and Tyson are in the arcade corner of the lounge, playing Soul Calibur III. Zach and Carol are also there, playing on the DanceDanceRevolution X machine.

"It's simple, Carol. When the arrow comes up to the top, step on the same arrow on the dance pad."

"Oh, come on Zach, it can't be that simple the way you do it..."

"I play on Difficult, it has a lot more arrows. But you've gotta get Beginner down before you can do that. C'mon, try it again."

"Fine... I'll do this one." She chooses the song "Flourish" on Beginner mode.

"Alright, that's a song you'll like."

Zach is annoyed at Carol, but is doing a great job of hiding it. 'Man, I wish Griff was here, he'd do a better job of teaching. He _does_ play Expert after all...'

JP is watching some French show on the huge TV, and Elise and Seeiah are at the eating area, drinking milkshakes. Elise has a Strawberry, Seeiah has a Chocolate.

"I'm telling you, Elise, you really have to try the Chocolate..."

"Sorry, but I just don't like chocolate...anything.........not in a racist way, of course."

"Don't worry, Elise, I know you're not like that. But wow, a girl that doesn't like chocolate... Hmm, I thought I'd _never_ see the day..." Seeiah takes a sip of her shake.

Psymon hasn't been seen all morning. No one knows what's gotten him so quiet. What's he up to?

Brodi left a little while ago to go meditate, leaving Allegra, Zoe, Viggo, Moby, and Eddie, who are chatting in the center of the lounge.

"Are you kidding? Street Luge is _way_ better than skateboarding!"

"Oh yeah? What makes you say that?"

Allegra and Eddie are having an argument after Viggo brought up the subject of sports. Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as what happened on the plane.

"What makes me say that? You can't even get close to the speeds I can get to!"

"Yeah, but laying on a sled on wheels is _boring_. Where are the tricks?"

"Oh come on, the adrenaline rush from speed is something you can't beat. Have you watched Nascar?"

"Yes, and personally, I find it boring. Well, unless they crash, that's always pretty awesome... But that's beside the point!"

"No it's not!"

"Alright you two..." Zoe steps in. "We both agree that snowboarding is the best out of all of them, don't we?"

"Totally!"

"Uh-huh."

"Alright then, let's leave it at that and call it a day. Geez..."

Zoe starts up a new conversation. "So Eddie, where've ya been the last two seasons?"

"I had to go to college and stuff, y'know, life. I was really busy up until about 2 years ago, when I finally got a house and a good job and everything. Then I just started to chill, started doin' street luge again, and then when this package came I was like 'Sweet! SSX is back!' so I decided to get back in it!"

"Well, glad you did! Just don't hit on Elise again, she's got a man." Zoe chuckles a little.

"That was ONE TIME Zoe, _ONE TIME_!" He holds up his index finger to stress the 'one'.

"Twice."

"No it... oh WHATEVER!"

Allegra has a disgusted look on her face. "You _liked_ that-"

"Don't even say it." Allegra turns around and finds Elise standing behind the couch she's sitting on.

"Elise, you are so damn random! Where did you come from!?"

"That's not the point! Why do you constantly insist that I'm a... one of those... my God, I hate the word..."

"Oh, come on! You went snowboarding in your underwear in season 3, what's up with that!?"

"Hey, I was _forced_ to, I nearly froze to death thank you very much!"

"Oh come on, who forces-"

"GIRLS!" shouts Viggo. He gives Allegra an angry glare.

Allegra sighs and puts her head down. "I'm sorry... I'm gonna go get some Doritos." She gets up and walks over to the vending machine.

Elise gives Viggo an amused look. "Wow, Viggo, what did you _do_?"

"............I......I don't know......"

Moby finally speaks. "Well at least she's a bit more calm now."

There's a few seconds of silence. Then Elise breaks it. "Well, I'll see all of you later, I have to go paint my nails." She leaves the lounge.

A few more seconds of silence. Then Eddie starts a conversation. "So Zoe, when did-"

BOOM!

The vending machine randomly explodes. Fortunately, Allegra was already walking away from it, but the explosion still throws her down. Smoke fills the room, and everyone starts to panic.

"Allegra!!!" Viggo yells.

"Oh my God..." Eddie says.

"Psymon..." says Zoe to herself.

The smoke clears through the vents after about a 30 seconds, and luckily there's no fire. Where the vending machine once was is now a pile of broken glass, metal, Funyuns, Doritos, Cheetos, and a bunch of other snack foods.

Allegra hops up from the ground. "I'm okay! I'm okay..."

Viggo slowly rises from under one of the couches. "What the _hell_ just happened?"

"_Psymon_ just happened," Zoe says. She's over by the blast area holding a piece of paper. It reads:

"Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! You've been STARKED! Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"

Zoe shakes her head. "Psymon, you idiot. You're lucky no one got hurt."

The whole room is silent for a few seconds. Then, the door to the lounge opens, and Mac, Griff, Kaori, and Sarah walk in. Mac's talking to Kaori about something.

"...fell because he couldn't move the..." He looks up and sees the destroyed vending machine. "What the he-"

"Psymon," Allegra says.

"Ah....... Maybe someone should call Atomika..."

*****

Later that day, at about 5 PM, Atomika's in his radio tower, located somewhere in Downtown Metro City. He just can't figure out why Mountain Cam #316 all of a sudden isn't getting a signal.

"*sigh* I hope I don't have to go all the way up there to fix it..." He buries his head in his hands.

The 28-year-old DJ/Event Organizer has been making last minute preparations for the competition all day, while doing the radio broadcast. Atomika's been extremely busy, and hasn't even had time for lunch.

The current song playing, "Like This" by the X-Ecutioners, finishes up. Atomika presses the blue button next to his microphone, putting him back on the air, and starts speaking. "You're listening to the station for _all_ the SSX happenings on BIG Mountain! EA, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrradio BIG!" He presses an effect button on his control panel and the "BIG" echoes for a few seconds. "Alright, so, like I said I've been making some final preparations for this year's SSX season, and most everything's going well... except for this stupid Mountain Cam I can't get working... *sigh* I'll probably be up in Merqury City fixing it later. Anyway, this next song's going out to Eddie 'The Kid' Wachowski who's back after being off the SSX circuit for the last two seasons. Welcome back, Eddie! Now here's "Bonecracker" by Shocore. Cool song." He quickly scrolls through the Tricky playlist on his MCOMM, and selects "Bonecracker" to broadcast. The song starts playing over the radio. "Stay tuned, right here, to Radio BIG." He presses the blue button again, then lays back in his chair. "Man, I can't wait until 5:30, I'm _hungry_."

Later, at 5:27, "Leader" by Bif Naked is broadcasting off the Tricky playlist, and Atomika still can't figure out what's up with the Mountain Cam.

"Yeah, it's probably a problem with the cam itself. *sigh*"

"Having technical difficulties, Atomika?"

He turns around in his chair and finds Allegra walking through the doorway.

"Oh, hey Allegra. Cam #316 is acting up, I'll have to go up to Merqury City later and fix it... Hey, how'd you get in here anyway?"

"Shoot, I could ask myself the same question. It took me hours to find this place."

"But how'd you get in?"

"They knew I was a competitor, they just let me in. Anyway, I came to tell you that Psymon went and blew up the vending machine in the lounge."

"What!? Did anyone get hurt!?"

"No, no. It was mostly a smoke bomb, nothing very lethal."

"Hmm..." He nods his head in understanding. "I knew he wouldn't stay quiet for long. Good thing I have another- Wait, you couldn't have just messaged me on my MCOMM?"

"I wanted to check out your place." She looks around for a few seconds, then walks up next to Atomika. "Cool stuff you got here, Atomika."

"Yeah, it is pretty- Hold up, I'll give you the grand tour later." He turns back to the microphone and presses the blue button again. "Hey, DJ Atomika here. That was "Leader" by Bif Naked. Y'know it's weird, tons of people call in saying that Zoe Payne sounds exactly like Bif Naked. I can't really tell, I mean I've never heard Zoe sing... Okay, before Radio BIG takes a break, I have here the beautiful, talented SSX veteran Allegra Sauvagess, competing again for the third season in a row! So Allegra, have anything to say to the listeners out there?" Atomika shifts the microphone toward her.

"Hey everybody, Allegra here! I'm glad to be back after 3 years and, um... I can't wait to kick some A out there on the mountain! Check out the competition and keep listening to Radio BIG! Peace out!"

Atomika gives her a thumbs up and a smile as he shifts the microphone back toward himself. "Thank you, Allegra! Alright, Radio BIG's going off the air until 7 PM, but I won't leave you hanging. Here are some more Tricky Tunes to keep you entertained." On his MCOMM, he touches the Tricky playlist, goes to Options, and enables the Shuffle option. "Alright everyone, enjoy your day and keep listening to EA, Radio BIG." He presses the blue button again and turns toward Allegra. "Nice job with that, you sounded completely natural!"

"Thanks, I'm pretty good with public speaking. By the way, what's EA?"

"Electronic Arts, they're one of our most important sponsors. Most of our Event Organizers work for them."

Allegra nods her head. Atomika gets up from his chair and stretches his arms. "Well, I am _hungry_, and I'm gonna go get some food. And I still have to fix that cam..." He grabs his MCOMM and starts to walk toward the doorway. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then." He then stops. "Unless..." He turns toward Allegra. "You want to come with me?"

Allegra's eyes widen. "Well... I didn't happen to eat anything since breakfast. Sure, I'll come! What're ya havin'?"

"Well, I was thinking...how about Pablo's?"

"Oh don't even ask me, you know that's my favorite!"

"Alright then, well, let's go!"

The two leave the room, Atomika locking the studio on the way out. They start walking down the hallway toward the exit.

"So, you think I'm beautiful and talented..."

*****

"Oh, Mac is going to _love_ this!"

At about 5:30 PM, Kaori is leaving BeatCraze, a popular music store in Downtown Metro-City. She has an excited smile on her face as she heads back to the Lodge. In both arms, she's carrying a large box covered in red gift wrap.

"So, I wonder... Should I just give it to him? Or maybe I'll put it in his room..."

She crosses the street and turns right, putting her on the main street going toward the Lodge. She's about 2 minutes away when she suddenly hears a familiar male voice behind her.

"Hey, Kaori."

She freezes, and her heart immediately starts to race. "No..." She turns around and looks at him for hardly a second before whipping back around and starting to bolt toward the Lodge. All the joy has disappeared. 'What the hell is _he_ doing here!?' She keeps running until she gets to the Lodge, not looking back even once. She runs through the lobby and the lounge, still holding the large box, looking like a blur to the few boarders still relaxing in the lounge.

Seeiah, sitting on one of the couches with her laptop, sees Kaori out of the corner of her eye. "What happened to her?" she mutters to herself. "I hope she's alright..."

Kaori grabs her room key out of her pocket, jams it in the slot, swings open the door, and shoves herself inside before finally calming down a little. She quickly closes the door behind her and sets the large box down on the living room floor.

Sarah is sitting on the couch in the living room area, playing her PlayStation 3. She looks up for a moment and sees the look of terror on Kaori's face. She quickly pauses the game and walks up to her.

"My gosh, Kaori, what happened?" she says sympathetically. "You look like you just saw a ghost... or Psymon..."

A tear runs from Kaori's left eye down her cheek. "No... Worse..."

*****

"Oh my God, no way! I seriously did that!?"

"Yeah, it was pretty crazy... Ha, it is kind of hilarious though when you think about it..."

"So what happened after that?"

"C'mon, you don't remember _anything_?"

It's about 6:15 PM, and Atomika and Allegra are in Downtown Merqury City. They're eating at Pablo's, a Mexican fast food restaurant that's really popular on BIG Mountain. Allegra brought up the subject of the private jet, and the conversation turned toward what happened when Allegra got drunk during the flight from New Zealand.

"How _could_ I remember anything? Do you know how much I had to drink?"

"I don't think I _want_ to know... Well, basically, you and Zach started yelling at each other again, then Viggo just got angry and stormed away to the kitchen. You then started arguing with Elise, and at that point I just had to end it. I somehow calmed you down, and you just fell asleep in the chair.

"Wow... Viggo has been getting angry at me a lot lately. First the plane, then today in the lounge, I wonder what's up."

"Well, you did make yourself look bad both times."

"Yeah, but, he's never really been annoyed with me at all before..." She takes a sip of her dnL, and it seems to give her an emotional boost. "Man, I love how they _still_ have dnL here on BIG Mountain! This stuff beats 7up by a longshot!"

"It _is_ good stuff. We stocked up on it right before they discontinued it. It wasn't that expensive, either, they were one of our sponsors for the third competition, so we got it cheaply. It really paid off."

"It most certainly did!" She quickly gulps down the rest of her dnL. "Well, I'm done." She lets out a burp and quickly slaps her hand over her mouth.

Atomika laughs. "So I really enjoyed our little conversation time, Allegra, you sure are fun to talk to!"

"Yeah, well, I have a lot to talk about. I enjoyed it, too!" The two get up and throw out their trash, then walk through the exit into the cold winter evening.

"Well, I better go fix that Mountain Cam before it gets too dark. So I'll see you later then?"

"Wait. You still haven't answered my question."

"Do I _have_ to answer...?"

"C'mon, it can't be _that_ hard. What would you rate me on a scale of 1-10?"

Atomika lets out a long sigh of surrender, his breath condensing in the cold air, then smiles. "9.5."

"Is it okay if I ask why?"

"You drink too much." Allegra laughs. "But don't worry. Kick that habit and you can get that 10..."

They look into each other's eyes for a second, smiling, before Atomika turns and begins walking down the street, sliding his hands into the pockets of his black winter coat.

"See you later!"

Atomika turns around and gives her a quick wave in response, then continues to walk.

Allegra stands in front of Pablo's for a few more seconds. She repeats Atomika's words, letting them ring in her head. "Kick that habit and you can get that 10..." She smiles and starts walking in the other direction, toward the transport station. "You can get that 10..."

**Part IV**

"Isn't this sunset _amazing_, Allegra?"

"It sure is, Viggo. But you know what's more amazing?"

"What?"

"You!" She hugs him excitedly.

"Oh stop it, you know no one can be as awesome as you, Allegra!" He hugs her back.

"Hey, I know! Why don't we see who's the better kisser?"

"Wait...what?"

"Come on, Viggo, you know you want to!"

"Well I...um..."

But Allegra's lips are already on his before he can react. After about 10 seconds she pulls away slowly.

"How was that?"

"......Wow..." He's trying to hold back his excitement.

"Alright, your turn!"

"But we just... I think you've already won!"

"What? Don't you _want_ to kiss me?"

".........I do..."

He starts to lean toward her for another kiss.

"Viggo..." A voice suddenly speaks out of nowhere.

"Huh... What? Who said that!?" Viggo frantically looks around, but no one's there.

"Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggo..."

"Where are you!?"

"Dude!"

Viggo feels a slap on his shoulder, and suddenly he's lying on his bed, face-to-face with one of his pillows.

"What the-"

"Hey Viggo, get up." Viggo rolls over and finds Eddie standing by his bed.

"What... What time is it?" Viggo glances over at the clock on his nightstand. It's 9:23 AM. "Dude, I told you not to wake me until 11!"

"Sorry, Viggo. I got an MCOMM message from Atomika. We've gotta meet everyone in the lounge for a meeting at 10. It's probably important."

"Oh. Okay then..." Viggo slowly slides out of his bed, and walks over to his half-unpacked suitcase. He starts digging through it for some clothes. "Sorry for yelling, I didn't-"

"Nah, don't worry about it. I get annoyed when I'm woken up early, too. Especially in the middle of a good dream..."

"Yeah..."

Eddie walks out of Viggo's room and enters his own. Viggo continues digging through his suitcase. "Wow, what a dream..."

*****

It's about 10 AM, and the SSX competitors are gathered in the center of the lounge. Atomika told everyone to meet at 10 for an important meeting.

Atomika quickly finishes his Pop-Tart. "Okay, let's get this meeting star- Wait, where's Psymon?"

"I'm on it..." Zoe gets up and walks through the door to the rooms. A minute later she comes out dragging Psymon by the arm.

"Leggo of me ya witch!"

"If it were up to me I wouldn't let you go until you died and went to hell. That way you couldn't mess with anything... or anyone." She shoves him down onto one of the couches. "Now just stay put for once. Geez..."

"Whatever..."

Zoe returns to the couch where she, Allegra, Viggo, Moby, and Eddie are sitting.

"Dang, Zoe, you're tough..." says Eddie.

"What was your first clue?"

"Okay, now that everyone's here, let's get started."

"Is this gonna be as boring as that MCOMM Accessory speech?" Zach says.

"No. Alright, you guys should have your maps with you-"

"Ah, mine's in my room," Viggo says.

"Sorry, man, I forgot to tell you," Eddie says.

"Look on with someone else. Okay, I'm just gonna go ahead and explain the mountain in a bit more detail. First off, BIG Mountain is divided into 3 sections: Alpha, which is season 3's original mountain; Delta, which has tracks from seasons 1, 2, and 4; and Omega, which brings 24 brand-new tracks to the competition!"

"Now _that's_ what I call awesome!" exclaims Viggo.

"Can you please not shout in my ear, Viggo?" Allegra complains.

"Next, we have 4 main cities on the Mountain. Metro City, where we are now; Merqury City, on Delta's Peak 1; Stellar City, on Omega's Peak 1; and Breakdown City, which covers most of Omega's Peak 4. Each city has a Downtown area away from the actual course where you can shop, eat, do whatever. Your MCOMM has a database on all the shops and restaurants in every city."

"Wow, four different cities to shop in," Elise says, amused. "I can get used to this..."

Kaori has a concerned look on her face. "Omega's Peak 5 looks really high... is it safe...?"

"Don't worry, Kaori, safety is our number 2 priority! That peak is-"

"Well then what's your number 1 priority?" Tyson interrupts.

"Fun, of course! Anyway, Omega's Peak 5 is off-limits until the finals. Most of you won't have to board up there if you don't want to, but for the two that will, you will receive safety gear. Emergency Oxygen Tanks, or EOTs, thermal suits to wear under your clothes, and you can always call for help on your MCOMM."

"Humph, who needs safety gear?" Psymon mutters.

"Uhh, normal people?" Allegra responds.

"You want a piece of me!?"

"I ain't afraid of you!"

"Hey, calm down you two, we don't want a brawl here."

The two sit back in the couches.

Atomika continues, speaking quickly. "Okay, now I'm gonna quickly explain how this year's competition is gonna work. Your ranking over everyone else is determined by how many points you earn. For all events, you earn 10 points every Platinum, 8 points every Gold, 4 every Silver, and 2 every Bronze. Your point totals reset each peak you advance. If you have the most points for a particular peak once all the races on that peak are done, you conquer that peak. All of you will get to ride every course on every peak, with the exception of Omega's Peak 5, of course. Once all those races are done, the 6 competitors who conquered the most peaks or got the most total points overall will enter the Quarter Finals, which take place on Alpha. 2 will be eliminated, and the Semi Finals will take place on Delta. 2 more will be eliminated, and the Finals will take place on Omega, where the final two will battle it out for the win. Whoever wins the most events in the finals wins the competition. Did you guys get all that?"

They nod their heads.

"Good, I don't have to repeat anything." Atomika takes a drink from a bottle of water he's holding. "Now, for the events. There are two types of race events: Sprint and Checkpoint. Sprint is the normal 6-competitor race down the course. Checkpoint is where you race one at a time down the course through a series of gates. Your medal in Checkpoint is determined first by percent of gates cleared, then by course time. There are two race tracks on each peak, and the backcountry track is also a Sprint racecourse.

"Okay, next are the Style events. There are 3 types: Tricky, The Pipe, and Uber Madness. Tricky is where you go down the track with 5 other opponents, competing for the best score out of the 6 of you. The Pipe is a variation of Tricky that takes place in a half-pipe, and only 2 players are in the half-pipe at once. Uber Madness is new, and it's simple: whoever does the most Uber tricks in a certain time period wins. Rail Ubers don't count. It takes place on both Tricky and The Pipe tracks. There is one Tricky track and one The Pipe track on each peak, and backcountry tracks are used as Tricky tracks also. Did you get that?"

They nod their heads again.

"Okay." He smiles. "Man, that was a mouthful." He finishes up his water bottle. "Okay, any questions before I let you guys go?"

"How tall is BIG Mountain now?" Griff asks. "It was 21,837 ft before, right?"

"Right, but now that's just Alpha. Let's see, I believe Omega's highest point is... 28,669 ft, just about."

Griff's eyes open wide in shock. "That's almost as tall as Everest..."

"Anymore questions?"

"Just one," says Tyson. "Does Peak 5 have a backcountry?"

Atomika seems to hesitate before answering. "...Well, Xenon and Gamma are treacherous enough as they are. Plus, the Finals work differently in terms of points, so Peak 5 doesn't need a third Sprint course. I'll explain all that when we get there. Okay, everyone, meeting over. The competition starts tomorrow, I hope you all are prepared!" He turns and walks out of the lounge into the lobby.

"Wow, I can't wait for tomorrow!" Carol says, excited.

Mac nods in response. "Yep. This is definitely gonna be SSX's best season."

*****

Kaori's decided to relax today. She's already ridden a few of the old and new tracks over the past two days, and she wants to rest the day before the competition starts.

At about 2:15 PM, Kaori is sitting in the living room, watching a Japanese comedy show on the plasma screen, and enjoying one of her homemade creamy Strawberry milkshakes. During a commercial break, Sarah's bedroom door creaks open behind her.

"Oh, Hi Kaori. What's on TV?"

"Just a Japanese comedy I always used to watch. Did you have a nice nap?"

"Yeah, I actually did. Man, I have no idea why I was so tired! As soon as I got back from the meeting I just hopped back into my bed."

"Well, how long were you playing PS3 last night?"

".........Right... Heh, I play video games like a boy, don't I..."

"You sure do. Hey, do you want a milkshake? It's my special blend!"

"Special blend, huh? Sounds tasty, sure!"

Kaori hops off the couch and walks over to the kitchen, and grabs a few dairy ingredients out of the refrigerator. "What flavor do you want?"

"Come on, Kaori, you know I'm a sucker for Vanilla!"

"Hey, you can't just assume all the time, can you?" Kaori puts the precise amounts of everything in the blender and hits the start switch. After about a minute, she flicks the switch off and takes the top off the blender. Right then, there's a knock on the door.

"Kaori, it's me!" Mac's voice can be heard from the hallway.

"You can help yourself, Sarah, I better go see what Mac wants..."

Sarah chuckles a little, then looks over toward the TV area. "Hey, do you mind if I..."

"Sure, go ahead. Ha, it's no wonder you made friends with Griff, I swear that kid is more game-crazy than anyone!"

Sarah laughs and quickly pours some of the milkshake into a glass. The then goes over to the living room and starts up her PS3.

Kaori gets to the front door and swings it open. "Alright, Mac, what is it that you...... Whoa."

"What do you think?"

Mac's standing at the front door in a brand new snowboarding outfit. He has a dark red and blue cap on, tilted at about 10:00 backwards. On his upper body he has a white t-shirt with a drawing of a lemon slice covering the front, and a thin, black leather jacket over it. He's wearing dark blue loose-fitting jeans, the legs draped over his dark red and blue snow boots.

"Wow... That outfit is great!"

"Thanks, I knew I needed something new. I just went down to the nearest clothes store and picked out a bunch of stuff that looked good. I'm mixing and matching things and seeing what looks best. I have at least 5 possible outfits so far that can be tweaked some, so I want to know how this looks to you."

"Well, now that you mention it, the red doesn't really go with anything... Well, it's a dark red, so I guess it doesn't matter. Either way it's a _huge_ improvement over your older outfits."

"Well that's great! I'll wear this tomorrow then!"

"Awesome!" Kaori pauses for a second. "Hey, do you want a milkshake?"

"Milkshake? What, from the lounge?"

"No, my milkshake! I made some Vanilla a few minutes ago, and-"

"You make milkshakes?"

"What do you mean? I know you tried my milkshake before. Hmm... Don't you remember at the closing party last season?"

"That was yours!? Wow! No wonder it tasted so good! Sure, I'll have some!"

"Great! Come inside." Mac enters the room, waves to Sarah, and follows Kaori to the kitchen. She pours some of the thick, creamy liquid into a glass and hands it to Mac. He starts to gulp it down right away.

"Mac... Don't you want a straw...?"

"Nah, I'm good. I'm immune to brainfreeze." He gulps down some more, then stops. "Hey, I wonder how my lemonade would taste mixed with your milkshake..."

"...I don't think those two would go together..."

"Yeah, you're right, stupid idea." Kaori chuckles as Mac gulps down the rest of the shake. "Ahh... that was good... perfect milkshake..."

"Hey Mac."

"Yeah?"

"I have a surprise for you..."

"Ooh, I like surprises! What is it?"

"Come into my bedroom with me and you'll see..." She starts walking toward her bedroom.

"......Umm...... Are you _sure_ I should-"

Kaori starts laughing. "No, no, it's not like _that_ Mac, come on."

He follows her into the bedroom, and she pulls a big red box out of her closet.

"Whoa! Is it my birthday?"

"No, it's just something I thought you'd like..." Mac lifts the large box onto the bed.

"Oh come on, there has to be some occasion. If not, we'll make one!"

"Mac, you're so funny, just open it!"

"Alright!" Mac starts to tear off the red wrapping, revealing a dark blue box. "...No way..." He tears the rest of the wrapping off. "..._No freakin' way!_..." Kaori's grin just gets wider as he opens the large flaps of the box and lifts the long device out of the box. Mac can barely contain himself. "It's...it's a.........a..."

"A synthesizer."

"Right......... Oh my...... Why? How?"

"I still had some of my race winnings saved from last season. I decided to get you something nice. Like it?"

"_Like_ it? It's _amazing_! Full keyboard, thousands of different sounds, tons of storage space for recordings... It's the ultimate DJ tool! Oh my God, thank you so much!" He places the synthesizer on the bed and wraps his arms around Kaori.

"Oh, Mac, it's no problem, really... ah, too tight!"

"Oops, sorry." Mac lets go of her. "Dang, I wouldn't have given this to _myself_ for Christmas... This is just too generous, I'm gonna give you something in return... I know, dinner! I'll take you wherever you want, on me!"

"Mac, you really don't have to-"

"No, Kaori. It's not because I _have_ to. I _want_ to." He slowly wraps his arms around her middle. "Besides, isn't love all about giving anyway?" He leans in and softly brushes his lips on hers.

"Mac, what did I do to deserve you?"

"Umm......exist?"

"Oh, stop it, you're too much." Her lips meet his again, and they stay there for about 10 seconds before Mac slowly pulls away.

"So... Where do you want to have dinner?"

"Ummm..." Kaori bites her lower lip in thought. "Well, I don't get to have Italian food often. How about Olive Garden?"

"Ha, I was hoping you'd pick something more expensive..."

Kaori chuckles. "Mac, I love you."

"I love you too, Kaori." He gives her another soft kiss before letting her go. He lifts the synthesizer off the bed. "So, Olive Garden it is, then. I guess I'll see you tonight at about 9?"

"Isn't that a little too late?"

"...No, not really. They don't close until midnight."

"Okay Mac, sure." She smiles and walks beside him toward the front door.

Mac opens the door and turns back toward Kaori. "Did I ever tell you how sexy you look with your hair like that?"

"Mac, just get out!" She laughs and pushes him out the door.

"Alright, alright!" He stumbles into the hallway and regains his balance. "See ya later!" He pulls out his room key and goes into his own room.

Kaori closes the door and walks back inside, smiling.

"You sure are lucky, Kaori," says Sarah, still playing her PS3.

"It's like I said, the good definitely outweighs the bad. It's just most of the good doesn't show out on the snow..." Kaori walks back into her room, twirling one of her pigtails with her finger.

*****

It's 6:15 PM, and Shane and Tyson are taking a break from the arcade to eat something. They're both sitting in the eating area of the lounge, Tyson having a cheeseburger and fries, and Shane having a chicken sandwich, also with fries.

"So, Tyson, are you excited about this year's competition?" Shane takes a sip of his dnL.

"I sure am! My older brother, Nate, said the fourth season wasn't as good as the third. But now that all of the tracks from season 3 are back, I get to check them out! Plus, we have all the new tracks! Ha, Nate doesn't know what he's missing..."

"That's great." He takes another sip. "I'm just blown away by the whole thing, I mean who would have thought _I_ would be in SSX?"

"Well, you've gotta be good! They don't just pick anyone for these things y'know." Tyson takes a bite of his burger.

"Yeah, you're right. It's gonna be fun either way." Shane puts some fries in his mouth.

"You bet it will! But I feel like Atomika's hiding something..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, remember when I asked him if Peak 5 had a backcountry?"

"Yeah." Shane puts some more fries in his mouth.

"Well, he didn't exactly say no. If my memory's correct, his exact words were '...Peak 5 doesn't _need_ a third Sprint course.' He didn't say it doesn't _have_ one." Tyson pops the last bite of his burger into his mouth and licks his fingers.

"It could be." Shane bites a chunk of his sandwich. "But don't you think it's kind of a stretch? Why would he keep an entire track a secret?"

"I dunno, maybe it's really dangerous? Peak 5 is... aw, damn." Tyson suddenly realizes he accidentally got his hair in his Coke.

Shane finishes his dnL. "Dude, maybe you should cut your hair. What are the advantages of having hair that goes down to your shoulder blades?

"Yeah, it really can be a nuisance sometimes." He wipes his blond hair with a napkin and tosses it back behind his shoulder. "But my hair is weird, it grows to this point extremely fast, then it just stops, like it's satisfied or something. Why waste money getting it cut if it won't grow any longer than this?"

"True, true..." Shane finishes up the last of his fries.

"Anyway, like I was saying, Peak 5 is pretty high up there, and Atomika said BIG Mountain was almost as tall as Everest. He probably doesn't want anyone to die up there, or something..."

"Well then it's better kept a secret."

"True, but I just want to know if it is in fact up there... I don't know, the weirdest things bug me." Tyson gulps down half of his Coke and lets out a burp.

"Hey, are you gonna finish those?" Shane says, pointing to Tyson's fries.

"No, I don't think I'm hungry enough." He slides his plate over to Shane. "Man, you're one of those quick metabolism people, aren't you? I have a cousin that's like that, he's like a toothpick, but can stuff his face with half a pizza pie before getting full."

"Yeah, well, it must run in the family. My folks are never surprised about the way I eat."

Tyson finishes his Coke, then stands up and stretches his arms. "Okay, come back to the room when you're done, we're gonna have a Need for Speed Marathon!"

"What does that mean?"

"It _means_, we're gonna whore out all 6 NFS games, from Underground to Undercover, until my 360 overheats. Then, we'll overheat yours."

"Ha, that sounds fun! I'll be right there." Shane continues to finish Tyson's fries while Tyson returns to the room.

Suddenly, Psymon bursts through the door into the lounge, knocking Tyson off his feet, holding... a pink bra? A few seconds later Zoe bursts through the same door chasing after him. Oh, that explains it.

"Psymon, I swear, when I catch you I'm gonna pound your face until it caves in!!"

"Well there's one problem with that!! You've gotta catch me first!!!" Psymon runs through the door to the lobby.

"You son of a bitch!!!" Zoe follows him through the door.

Tyson slowly rises off the ground and regains his footing. ".........Okay........." He leaves the lounge.

*****

At about 10:30 PM, Griff is sitting in the living room area of his room, his high-end Alienware laptop on his lap. He just finished playing Crysis and is going to quickly check his Gmail before getting ready for bed.

"172 messages!? Why is all this spam in my inbox?" He clicks settings in the upper-right corner of the window, then goes to Filters. "*sigh* _Somebody_ messed with my settings..."

As he re-enables the spam filter, there's a knock on the door. Griff folds the laptop closed, leaving it on the couch, and walks up to the door to answer it. He swings open the door and finds Sarah standing there, holding board goggles.

"Hey, Sarah, what's up?"

"Well, I found these by the arcade." She holds up the goggles. "I thought they might be yours."

Griff has a quick flashback. "Oh, crap, I did leave them over there! Thanks, Sarah!"

"No problem." She hands him the goggles and Griff walks over to his bedroom door and tosses them on his bed.

Sarah walks slowly into the living room area. "So... what're you doing Griff?"

"Well, I just finished playing Crysis on my PC here."

"Crysis, huh? Wow, you must have an _amazing_ computer. Alienware?"

"Yeah, Alienware, and it _is_ amazing. I had to save up for... Wait, how would you know?"

"What? A girl can't know about these things?"

"......Are you a gamer?"

"Yep, sure am. I've got an Alienware PC at home; I even have my PS3 here with me, it's in my room."

Griff gives her a surprised stare.

"Yeah, I know, a girl having a PS3 is definitely weird."

"No, no. I actually think that's cool. You're the first girl I've met who's a real gamer. Wow... We have much more in common than I thought... Hmm, now that I think of it, we really don't know anything about each other, do we?"

Sarah thinks for a moment. "No, I guess not... And to think that we almost-" She stops herself.

Griff knows what she was about to say, but is also nervous about bringing it up. "Hey... why don't we talk for a few minutes? You know... just to get to know each other better?"

Sarah smiles at him. "Sure. I'd like that."

They both sit down on the couch, and Griff rests his laptop on the table in front of the couch.

"Okay, first," Griff starts. "Where in California do you live? Los Angeles?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Really? Why have we never seen each other before?"

"I don't know... I do go to a private school..."

The two chat for about 10 more minutes, learning about each other's home lives and snowboarding careers, basically going in chronological order up until a week and a half ago when the silver packages arrived.

"...and after looking through everything, I turned on the MCOMM, and the message was right there. I really couldn't believe it... I never could have imagined being in SSX before then, but... well, here I am now. I almost still can't believe it..."

Griff gives her a smile. "Well, I'm glad you are here. *sigh* I really was never good at talking to girls... In fact, you're probably the first girl who's talked with me for more than 2 minutes."

Sarah chuckles. "I can't imagine why... I don't find you detracting at all. Actually, I don't think I've enjoyed talking to anyone as much as you..."

Silence seems to settle in as Griff and Sarah admire each other's eyes, starting to feel more attracted.

"Wow... I can't get over your beautiful eyes..."

"Griff, I'm not the only person with dark blue eyes..."

"Yeah, I know, but......they're just so entrancing..."

They gaze affectionately at each other for a little while longer.

Suddenly, Griff gets up from the couch.

"Man, I don't know what it is about this couch that makes my leg fall asleep sometimes..."

Sarah smiles in amusement and stands up with him. After a few more moments of silence, a barrier seems to break between them.

"Griff..."

"Yeah?"

"...Do you remember back on the plane...when we almost......you know......kissed?"

".........Yeah......I remember..." The two move a little closer together.

"...Did you... Did you feel the same way I felt at that moment?"

Griff thinks for a few seconds before speaking. "When I saw you on the plane, sitting there by yourself...gazing out the window...... You looked so lonely... content, but lonely..."

Sarah gives a small smile in agreement. "To be honest, I was still skeptical about how the veterans would treat the newbies... I mean I'm really not the type to make friends..."

"Yeah... I guess I could tell. I wanted to try to talk to you, but......I was nervous, and you really didn't seem interested... But I felt _something_ there; I knew I had to try......" He chuckles a little. "Heh, I probably sound really dumb right now..."

Sarah looks deeply into Griff's eyes, taking in what he's saying. She smiles and starts to ease her arms around his middle, almost involuntarily. "I guess you couldn't tell I was just as nervous as you... I really didn't know what to say either..."

Griff smiles and slides his arms around her. "Somehow I brought myself to sit next to you, to rest my hand on your shoulder...I guess to try and communicate a different way... After that when we looked at each other, I knew it was the perfect moment, it just felt so right...... It would have been the perfect kiss if Allegra hadn't ruined it..."

They both laugh a little at that. Then, Sarah gently rests her head on Griff's shoulder. "Yeah... It would have been perfect..."

"...and after that moment happened......I was sure that.........that I was in love with you..."

She meets his gaze again. "Do you still feel like you love me?"

Griff slowly lifts his hand and runs it through her long, dark hair before answering. "Yeah. I do." He slowly moves toward her, easing his eyes closed, and Sarah does the same until their lips meet, and they instantly lose themselves in their first kiss, feeling nothing other than each other's warmth and love...

The moment lasts about 15 seconds before there's a click, and the door swings open. Mac enters the room and closes the door behind him, singing along to some music he's listening to on his MCOMM.

"_...it's tricky to rock a rhyme to rock a rhyme that's..._ oh, hello!"

Griff and Sarah didn't even notice he was in the room until then. They quickly pull away from each other.

"Oh...hey, Mac," Griff says, nervously. "When did you get here?"

Mac looks at him, slightly puzzled. "Umm, about 5 seconds ago..."

"Oh, okay... ... How was your dinner?"

Mac perks up a bit. He touches his MCOMM screen, shutting off the music. "It was nothing short of _amazing_! The food was awesome, the service was great, and I could tell Kaori was absolutely loving the whole thing, even if she didn't completely show it."

"...Well that's great! I'm glad you had fun!"

"Yeah..." Mac looks at the two, amused. 'Hmm, they look good together...' He smiles and starts walking toward his bedroom. "Well, don't mind me, I'll just be in my room......listening to music. He touches his MCOMM screen and starts singing softly again. "_...When I wake up people take up mostly all of my time, I'm not singin' phone keep ringin'..._" The bedroom door closes.

Sarah turns back toward Griff. "...I guess......I guess the moment's gone..."

He smiles at her. "How can it be gone if you're still here?"

Sarah blushes. "Griff, you're so sweet..."

Griff takes her in his arms again and lightly kisses her for a few seconds.

Sarah's eyes are still half-closed. "No... Don't...stop..."

"Hmm?"

She widens her eyes and they blink rapidly a few times. "Huh? What...?" Her face starts to turn red. "Was I thinking out loud...?"

Griff chuckles. "Yeah, you were." He kisses her again, just as lightly, for about 15 seconds longer. He breaks it and Sarah stares at him, almost mesmerized.

"Oh my God..."

"What? Did I do something-"

"No...it's just...the way you kissed me...it was _amazing_..."

"Oh..." He slowly returns his hands to his sides. "Well, um...thanks, I guess..." He chuckles nervously.

After a few more seconds, Sarah pulls her MCOMM out to check the time. "Well, it's almost 11, I should probably go now..."

"Oh, right, Atomika's rules... OK then."

She walks toward the front door, Griff following her there. He opens the door for her and she starts to walk out.

"Sarah, wait..."

Sarah turns around toward him.

"...Do you.........*sigh* Never mind..."

She smiles and gives him a quick kiss. "Bye, Grommet." She walks over to the next room, takes out her room key and enters, easing the door closed behind her.

Griff closes his door and walks to the living room area, both shocked and happy about everything that happened within the last 20 minutes.

"So..."

Griff turns around and sees Mac poking his head out of his bedroom doorway.

He turns toward Mac and smiles. "That was _awesome_..."

"Yeah, the first time _is_ awesome..."

"Yeah... Hey, did you change my Gmail settings?"

"...Umm......maybe..." He quickly pulls his head back in and closes the door.

Griff shakes his head and smiles. "Man, that's _so_ elementary school!" He walks into his own bedroom, closing the door behind him, and hops into his bed. He falls into a deep sleep about 10 minutes later. A deep sleep filled with dreams. Good dreams.

Next Chapter: **Chapter Five: Competition Begins**


	6. Competition Begins

_(Commentary: So, the SSX competition begins! I stayed away from the romance stuff for most of the chapter and concentrated a little more on the competition itself. Don't worry, there will be plenty of mushy romance stuff in the next two chapters, if you're into that sort of thing. Well, I don't have much to say about this chapter, so enjoy!)_

**Chapter Five: Competition Begins**

**Part I**

Today's Event Schedule:  
12:00 PM – Metro City – Sprint  
1:00 PM – Metro City – Checkpoint  
3:00 PM – Happiness – Sprint  
4:00 PM – Snow Jam – Checkpoint  
6:00 PM – Snow Jam – Sprint  
Enjoy your day, everyone! :)  
-Atomika-

Elise touches the options icon below the text message, and chooses 'Save Message' from the popup menu. She then returns her MCOMM to standby mode and places it down on her nightstand.

Shifting her blond bedhead out of her face, she glances over toward the digital clock resting on her nightstand. It's 8:12 AM.

"Hmm. Why did I wake up so early?" She shrugs and gets up from her bed. "Well, at least I have time for breakfast."

Elise grabs her robe from behind the bedroom door and wraps it around her body, then opens the door and walks toward the kitchen.

"My God, it's cold in here. I thought the heater was supposed to turn on by itself..."

She opens a kitchen cabinet and takes out the instant coffee to make, feeling too lazy to brew coffee beans. She pours some milk in a mug, puts it in the microwave to heat up, and sits down at the kitchen table.

"So... Metro City in the daytime... Interesting..."

There's a knock on the door, and Elise gets up to answer it.

"Geez, who's knocking this early?"

She swings open the door, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and finds Psymon standing at the door.

"What do you want, Psymon?"

Psymon gives her an annoyed look. "Good morning to you too..." He itches his dark brown hair a little, no gel in it yet.

"Hmm. You seem to have taken your pills this morning... What, run out of hair gel or something?"

"No, uh, I was wondering if you had any cotton balls lying around..."

"What for?"

"Well, um, I've gotta send something back home and, uh, I don't want it to break."

Elise smiles in amusement. "Sorry, Stark, I don't buy it. If you want some go buy them yourself. Now if you'll excuse me I have some coffee to drink."

"But I-"

Elise closes the door before he can finish, and walks back toward the kitchen. "Yeah, right, he wants _cotton balls_. Give me a break."

*****

Kaori's awake really early, and she can hardly wait for today's races to start. She's already showered and dressed and is heading out of her room toward the lounge for breakfast.

As she starts walking down the hallway, she spots Psymon standing in front of Elise's door. He turns to face her and starts walking toward her.

"Yo, Kaori, got any-"

"Don't you take one more step!" Kaori slowly starts to back up toward her room.

Psymon slows down, but continues to advance. "Relax, I took a chill pill, I'm good. Relatively, anyway..."

"...W-What do you want?"

"Got any cotton balls?"

Kaori stares at him, still apprehensive. "...Why?"

"Well, I, uh, need to send something back home and it's kind of fragile."

Kaori's facial expression goes from fearful to puzzled. "Since when do you want to _not_ break something...?"

"Do you have 'em or not?"

Kaori lets out a sigh. "Yes, I have some. Wait right there." Kaori takes out her room key and returns to her room for a few seconds.

Psymon develops an evil smile for a second...

Kaori returns holding a large bag of cotton balls and closes her door behind her. "Here." She tosses the bag at him. "Now please leave me alone," she says as she quickly walks past him. "I want to make it to the lounge with all my limbs intact."

Psymon chuckles a little. "Don't worry, I won't try anything. Especially since you punched out crazy man Sid..."

Any mention of that name makes Kaori shudder. She freezes and quickly whips her head around. "How did-"

"I just know these things......"

Kaori raises an eyebrow at him.

".........Okay, Mac told me. Told me to stay away from you, said '_cuz she's got a fist she ain't afraid to use, dawg, so lay off!_'"

Kaori turns around and starts walking again. She smiles triumphantly and joyfully. 'That Mac, I love him so much...'

**Part II**

At 12 PM, a light snowfall is depositing a fresh blanket of powder onto the Metro City race course. The clouds make the sky a brilliant white, and the stands are filled with adoring fans, anxiously waiting for the first race of the season to start.

Carol Snow is slowly approaching the start gate of the Metro City race course. Since she's never boarded down any course as extreme as the ones offered in SSX, she's obviously ecstatic.

As she enters the gate, she realizes she's the only newbie in this round. Zoe, Brodi, and Psymon are to her left, Moby and Allegra to her right, in that order.

Moby turns to face Carol. "So, you ready for this?"

"You bet I'm ready! Let's do this!"

Moby smiles. "Yeah, that's the spirit!"

Meanwhile, Atomika is waiting at the bottom of the first jump, his snowboard strapped on and ready to go. He's got his heavy-duty wireless headset connected to his MCOMM, which connects via satellite to the main computer in his radio tower, allowing him to control Radio BIG right from the palm of his hand, from anywhere he wants.

"Alright all you SSX enthusiasts, I'm here at the Metro City Breakdown, and we're just moments away from the first race of the new season! Hopefully all the competitors are ready to go, which I'm sure they are! The crowd's goin' wild, snow's drifting down from the sky, it couldn't be a more perfect opening day here on BIG Mountain!

"Okay, now, before the action begins let me talk a little about the new MCOMM 3. My goodness, let me tell you _this thing is freakin' phenomenal_ people this is a new _generation_ of handheld devices. Seriously, iPhone's got nothing on this. I mean sure, the iPhone you can shake get and places to eat, and you can check out the stock market... Yeah, that's nice and all, but the MCOMM? It lets me do an entire Radio Broadcast from _anywhere_ I want. _ANYWHERE._ Like, for example, _right here_ on Metro City Breakdown, where this race is happening? Yeah, that's awesome... _AND_, I can tap into ANY cam on BIG Mountain and check it out. Ha, get off the tracks, Apple, because the MCOMM train is comin' and it ain't stoppin' for anything! I mean really, you simply can't go wrong with an open source OS.

"And even with all these features packed in, it _still_ lets me check the time! Amazing. Speaking of the time, it's......12:04, this race is gonna start any second! Let me start some tunes and I'll keep you guys covered through all 3 rounds of this race once it starts! Keep that radio tuned here to Radio BIG, I know none of you want to miss this."

About 30 seconds later, a siren screams, signaling the race is about to begin.

"Oh, and that's the signal! This race is about to get started!" Atomika gets up from the ground, slips on a pair of blue shades, and prepares himself.

The competitors grab the handles of the starting gates as the large screen in front of them signals the countdown.

5.

'Time to dominate!' Allegra crouches down to get set.

4.

'Alrighty, let's do this.' Zoe takes a deep breath as she prepares for the first jump.

3.

'Let's see what BIG mountain's all about.' Brodi clamps down on the handles to get the most push.

2.

'I can't believe I skipped out on this last season. Let's go!' Moby shifts his goggles a little.

1.

'Oh man, here we go!' Carol readies herself for the launch.

The goggles activate, displaying the stats in the boarders' eyes. The gates shoot open instantly.

GO!

"And they're off!"

Atomika slowly starts accelerating as the boarders rocket out of the start gates, heading toward the jump.

"And it looks like... Moby has taken the lead! Brodi is following close behind, with Zoe in third! Great start, great start! Let's see if newcomer Carol Snow can show what she's made of here in this race!"

*****

About a minute and a half into the race, the track Bass Invaders is pumping on Radio BIG while Atomika is giving first-hand commentary on the race.

"So right now I'm zooming down the track alongside Moby Jones, who's almost neck-and-neck with Brodi and Carol! Zoe apparently wiped out and is now lagging behind by a few seconds, and Psymon... Well, I don't know what the hell he's doing, but _anyway_, Allegra is nowhere in my- Hold on, big jump coming up... And Moby performs a flawless Front Flip Superman Barspin! Brodi's playing it safe with an Airwalk, and Carol performs an amazing 360 Spinstand Aerial, excellent signature! Ha, as Rahzell would say, that's a funky dope maneuver!

"Okay, as I was saying, Allegra's nowhere in my sight, and I don't know whether she's far ahead or way behind, we'll just have to- Hold on, I'm getting word from one of the copters...... Oh my God, it seems Allegra is seconds away from the finish line!" There's a slight panic in Atomika's voice, but only for a split second. "I don't know how she did it, but she just received an unbelievable time of 1:58! That definitely deserves a Platinum medal! 10 points for Allegra!"

Moby gets angry, as he thought he had been in the lead. "No way in bloody hell did she do that without cheating!"

Brodi laughs, relatively calm. "C'mon, Moby, I don't see how anyone could possibly cheat to get down a _snowboarding course_ faster..."

Moby tries to come up with a remark of disagreement, but calms down a little instead. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But hey, second is better than nothing!" He suddenly throws his arm out at Brodi, causing him to lose his balance for a second. But that's just enough time for Moby and Carol to pull ahead of him.

"Ha, see you at the finish line!" Moby yells back to Brodi.

Atomika continues his commentary. "Ooh, Moby just pushed Brodi back a few places! Looks like this race is already decided as we near the home stretch!"

*****

At about 8 PM, the leaderboards are being posted on the bulletin board in the lounge, and the competitors excitedly rush to see them.

In the first Metro City race, Moby ended up second, Carol in third. Not bad for a newbie. In the second Metro City Sprint, Griff ended up in first with a Platinum time of 2:26. JP came in second, Viggo in third. And in the third, Mac placed first with a Gold, Kaori in second, and Zach in third, beating Elise by half a second.

In the Happiness races, Mac and Moby got Gold, Griff got Platinum, Brodi, Eddie, and Sarah got Silver, Seeiah, Allegra, and Carol got Bronze.

In the Snow Jam Sprint, Zoe got Platinum, Eddie and Brodi got Gold, Mac, Griff, and Sarah got Silver, JP, Allegra, and Zach got bronze.

In the Metro City Checkpoint, Allegra got the Gold, Mac got Silver, and Moby got Bronze.

In the Snow Jam Checkpoint, Eddie got the Gold, Sarah got silver, and Carol got Bronze.

So after the first day, Griff is in the lead with 24 points (those Platinums really gave him a boost), Mac and Eddie are tied for second with 20, and Moby and Allegra are tied for third with 14.

"Damn, Griff, how are you getting those Platinums?"

"Well, Mac, I guess an Adrenaline Rush beats a Sugar Rush any day!"

"Aw man, Tyson, neither of us are on the board yet..."

"Don't worry, Shane, it's only Day 1, we've got a lot more chances."

*****

"Hey, Viggo."

Viggo turns around and finds Allegra standing behind him.

"What do you want?"

"Umm..."

Viggo quickly pauses the game he's playing on the 360 in the lounge. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that, I-"

"No, no, it's alright. Hey, can I talk to you, privately?"

Viggo's a little puzzled but doesn't resist. "Okay, sure. Is something wrong?"

"No, just come with me."

The two exit the lounge and walk down the hallway to Allegra's room. She takes out her room key and the two enter the room. Zoe's not there, she's out shopping for gear.

"So what's up?"

"Okay." Allegra starts to develop a smile. "So you play guitar, right?"

"Yeah, normal and bass."

"Ha, even better! Come on." Allegra walks toward her bedroom, and Viggo follows. Allegra reaches down and pulls an X-plorer electric guitar out from under her bed. She connects it to a small amplifier next to her bed and hands it to Viggo. "Here, play something."

"Why?"

"I want to see how good you are."

"Okay..." Viggo starts playing the guitar solo from Hit Me With Your Best Shot. He executes it nearly flawlessly.

"Wow, nice! Why that song, though?"

"I dunno, it just randomly popped into my head."

"So you can play things by ear, huh? That's awesome."

"So what's the point of all this?"

"Okay, I was thinking we could start a band!"

"A band, huh? Wait, who's _we_?"

"You on guitar, or bass guitar, me on guitar, and Mac on keyboard. Or synthesizer or whatever. That would work out, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, but, we'll still need-"

"-a drummer, yeah, I know. You know any good drummers around here?"

"Well, I know, um... No, I don't know any drummers, unfortunately."

"Hmm. Well, I guess I'll keep asking around, then."

"Right........." Viggo starts backing up toward the door. "So I'll see you later then."

"Yep." Allegra places the guitar back under her bed.

"...Alright..." Viggo exits her bedroom, goes out the room door, and closes it behind him.

Once out in the hallway, Viggo slaps himself in the face so hard it leaves a red spot. "MY GOD! Why do I make myself look like such a JERK!?" He sighs loudly and starts walking back to the lounge. "Man, no wonder she doesn't like me....as more than a friend... *sigh*"

**Part III**

"Whoo, man, today's Style events were absolutely CRAZY, the boarders were rackin' up millions of points like it's their job! Um, well, it kind of is in a way, um, but who cares, they _had_ to feel good after those _amazing_ runs. So anyway, here are the current stats in case you missed them earlier............... Hmm, I know they're around here some- ah! Here they are! Okay, so, in the R&B Tricky events, the gold recipients were Griff Simmons, Moby Jones and Viggo Rolig, amazing runs. Newcomers Carol Snow and Shane Vitesse received Silver, along with Eddie 'The Kid' Wachowski, and Mac Fraser, Zach Truman, and Kaori Nishidake received Bronze. Nice job. For the Dysfunction Junction Pipe event, Griff Simmons received Platinum for his amazing score! Man, how in the world does that kid do it? Anyway, Gold was handed out to Viggo Rolig and Kaori Nishidake for their outstanding performances. Mac Fraser, Allegra Sauvagess, and Moby Jones were given Silver, and Sarah Simmons, Carol Snow, and Shane Vitesse were given Bronze.

"Okay, next we have the two Uber Madness events, and Tyson Logan completely DOMINATED them, receiving Platinum on both. Man, that guy's really swift with those Ubers. Silver was handed out to Moby Jones and Brodi Ford, and Bronze to Kaori Nishidake and Viggo Rolig. And finally, we have the Happiness Tricky events! Eddie Wachowski had a super run, receiving Platinum, and Sarah Simmons and Zoe Payne received Gold. JP Arsenault, Seeiah Owens, and Zach Truman received Silver, and Mac Fraser, Griff Simmons, and Brodi Ford received Bronze. Wow, Happiness seemed to shake things up...a lot.

"So, at the end of the Peak 1 events, Griff Simmons has conquered the peak with 44 points! Fantastic, just plain fantastic! I don't know if anyone's gonna take this kid down! In second place we have Eddie Wachowski with 34 points, and in third we have Moby Jones with 30 points. Today's events got Shane Vitesse and Tyson Logan on the board, but Elise Riggs and Psymon Stark have yet to get out of the hole. But hey, I know Elise ain't givin' up that easy, and Psymon... again, I don't know what the hell he's doing so I really can't say anything, but anyway, that's that!

"It may seem like your favorite competitor is either destined to be king or completely hopeless, but remember, we still have 10 more peaks to go before we determine the top 6, so just about _anything_ can happen!

"Well, it's just about 10 PM here on BIG Mountain and I'm about ready to go off the air. Tomorrow's gonna be a day for the boarders to relax, and Peak 2's events will start the day after. So wherever you are on this big blue globe of ours, be awesome and make sure to tune your radio tomorrow to EA, Radio BIG! Good night everybody!"

*****

Kaori lazily inserts her room key into the door handle and swings open the door to the room. As she walks inside, she finds Griff and Sarah playing some expert song on Guitar Hero: World Tour. She's too tired to even listen to the song to figure out what it is.

"Hey, what's up Kaori?" Griff says, his eyes still locked on the TV screen.

She lets out a big yawn before answering. "Oh, I'm just coming back from...the lounge, I was in there having a salad.

"Okay then. YES!" Griff exclaims as the results screen pops up. "96%, that's gotta be a new rec- Wait a minute... aw crap!"

Sarah starts laughing as Griff realizes she got a 97%.

"Sarah, you're too good! *sigh* Well, at least I beat _my_ old record." He turns toward Sarah, still laughing. "Wow, you have the most adorable laugh..." he says in an admiring tone. She blushes but continues to chuckle a little. Griff then turns toward Kaori. "Hey Kaori, are you too tired to make some milkshakes real quick? Mac told me yours are awesome."

"Yeah, sure. Wait...who...who says I'm tired?"

Griff quizzically stares at her. "Kaori. You can barely say one sentence without stopping. And your eyelids look like they've got weights on 'em."

"...Yeah, well, I'm never too tired to make milkshakes... What flavor?"

"Hmm, I'm craving some strawberry right about now."

"OK, I'll make some for the four of us! You can take some back to Mac."

"Okay then, Kaori."

After Kaori blends the ingredients together, the three sit at the kitchen table, enjoying the shakes too much to talk.

Griff downs his a bit too quickly, and throws his head down on the table, grasping it with his hands. "Ahhh! Damn, I _hate_ it when I do that!"

Kaori laughs a little, then finishes her shake. "Well, that woke me up some! I guess it's the extra sugar."

"Kaori, you are _so_ lucky I'm not sugar crazy anymore. You don't want to know what I would have done..."

"Yeah, I probably don't want to know," Kaori replies.

Sarah finishes her milkshake, her eyes wide. "Wow, I think strawberry's my new favorite! My God, this is good!"

"Yeah, Kaori," Griff adds. "You should sell these, you'd make millions!! ...Okay, maybe not millions, but definitely a lot..." He quickly takes a sip as if there's still something in the glass.

"Yeah, well, I don't want to sell them. If I did, I'd probably have to take up half my day making them... I _really_ don't want to do that."

Griff nods in understanding. Kaori collects the glasses and goes to quickly wash them in the sink. Sarah then turns toward Griff. "So, ready for another round of Guitar Hero?"

"Actually, no, I don't think my fingers, or my ego, can take much more abuse..."

Sarah laughs a little at that.

"I think I'm gonna head to bed now. We can play some more tomorrow."

"Alright..." Sarah leans forward and kisses him softly before he can try to get up. After a few seconds she slowly pulls away and licks her lips.

"Mmm, strawberry..."

Griff chuckles and gets up from his chair. "I love you too, Sarah. See you."

"Bye."

Griff walks toward the door with Mac's shake in his right hand. He walks out and closes the door behind him.

Kaori, now done with the glasses, turns toward Sarah with a clever smile on her face.

"......What?"

"Well, who's the lucky one now?"

"...What do you mean...?"

Kaori chuckles. "Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm just glad you've got a guy who loves you. It makes life so much more worth living, doesn't it?"

Sarah smiles in agreement. "Yeah. It really does."

*****

About 20 minutes after Griff left, Kaori's just finished showering and is getting ready to hop in bed and fall asleep. She'd already be asleep if it wasn't for that super sugary milkshake.

As Kaori slides under her warm blanket, she notices a small jewelry case sitting on top of a piece of paper on her nightstand.

'...That wasn't there when I went in the shower, was it...?'

Actually, it was there the whole time. She just bypassed it somehow.

Kaori picks up the small felt jewelry box and smiles. 'Well, dinner must not have been enough, I guess Mac wants to give me a present, too.' Kaori's expecting something like earrings or a necklace. But when she lifts the top of the box, her eyes grow wide and her jaw drops in shock.

".........Oh.....my......God..."

Inside the box is a gleaming golden ring encrusted with three brilliant diamond stones.

"Oh my God," she repeats as she slowly slips the gold ring on her finger, admiring its beauty.

"......D-D-Does this mean......"

In all her shock and excitement she momentarily forgot about the paper. She remembers and quickly grabs it from her nightstand, gets out from under her blanket, and sits down on the bed to look at it. She instantly recognizes the handwriting as Mac's, and her heart starts beating rapidly.

'It _is_ from Mac! Oh God, what... if...' She shakes her head to try and calm herself down. 'Ochitsuite, Kaori! Just read the letter.'

_Dear Kaori,_

_Hey, it's me, Mac. First off, I'm not the best writer, so just bear with me. Okay, if you're still wondering, yes, it is what you think it is. I decided to do it two days ago after you gave me the synthesizer. Now, of course that wasn't the only thing that made me decide, but it was... I guess you could call it that final push I needed. Anyway, I do love you, and I always have loved you. But to be honest, I wasn't really sure I wanted to spend my life with you, especially after the whole deal with Sid. I just wasn't absolutely sure about your trust. But when you gave me the synthesizer, even though it was a material thing, I really didn't feel like you were trying to buy my love. It felt like... just a bonus. And then when we kissed... Wow, it_

Suddenly a dark spot appears on the paper, and Kaori realizes that she's started to cry. She wipes the joyful tears from her eyes and continues reading.

_Wow, it felt so good to kiss you like that after so long. I didn't want it to end, but hey, it had to. Anyway, after that, I was sure, if I wasn't sure before, I am now. I know that you're the one. I want to be with you the rest of my life. I will always love you, and you alone. So, now that I've poured out my feelings, I guess that just leaves the question. Will you marry me?_

_Love,  
Mac_

_P.S. - Yeah, I know, bad ending. I said I wasn't a good writer.  
P.P.S. - Hey, would you mind not showing this to anyone? I don't want people thinking I'm a softie... except you... :)_

Kaori returns the letter to her nightstand and sits there on the bed, letting her tears flow down her cheeks and drip onto her pajamas. This has to be the greatest day of her life. Mac, the guy she's been in love with for almost 8 years, is asking her to marry him. Kaori's absolutely speechless.

The ring still on her finger, she gets up from the bed, walks over to her bedroom door, creaks it open, and leaves, slowly closing it behind her.

Next Chapter: **Chapter Six: Mac Flashback**


	7. Mac Flashback

_(Commentary: Okay, so this chapter is like 95% Mac/Kaori. So if you're into the romantic stuff then you'll love this chapter. If not, then I'm sorry, you're just gonna have to deal with it or not read it. Thanks a lot for the reviews, guys, keep 'em coming! I like getting feedback on stuff I put out on the web, both positive and negative. But does anyone feel like the story really lacks humor? I'm starting to feel that way. So Chapter Seven will probably be another long one, and it'll have romance in it, but a lot of humor as well, to kind of balance out this chapter. Okay, back to this chapter: WARNING, this chapter contains sexual content toward the end. It's nothing explicit or in-depth, but it's there, I guess you can rate it like T+ or something. If you really don't like this kind of stuff then stop when Mac locks his bedroom door. Also, there's some untranslated Japanese; you don't have to know what it means but if it really kills you not to know then Google it. Alright, I'm done here, enjoy the story!)_

**Chapter Six: Mac Flashback**

Mac is laying on the living room couch in his and Griff's room, wearing an old t-shirt and shorts, his normal sleepwear. He just finished watching The Dark Night, using Griff's laptop as a blu-ray disc player. He's just laying there watching the credits roll endlessly, too comfortable in the couch to get up and stop the movie.

He hears the door click and swing open, and Griff walks into the living room holding a glass of creamy, pink liquid.

"Hey Mac, Kaori saved some milkshake for you." He walks over to Mac and hands him the glass, then turns his head toward the TV. He notices his laptop on the ground under it, connected to the TV.

"Dude! _Why_ do you keep messing with my laptop? Grrr..." He storms over to the computer and yanks the HDMI cable out of the TV. "Alright, I'm going to bed. Don't wake me tomorrow." He starts to walk over to his bedroom, his laptop cradled under his arm.

"Like I could," Mac replies.

Griff stops and turns toward him. "What's that supposed to... Ah, forget it." He barges into his room, shoving the door closed behind him.

Mac continues to lay on the couch, sipping his milkshake, getting lost in his thoughts. 'Kaori must have seen the letter by now... I hope she likes the ring, it cost me all of my race winnings, and then some! *sigh* But I love her, I'd spend any amount of money for her...'

*****

_And now we take a trip deep into Mac's subconscious mind..._

*****

Ah, Kaori. Just thinking about her makes me feel good inside... I can't believe she bought me a synthesizer! Man, I needed a new one, that old crappy one was really limiting. But I didn't think _Kaori_ would be the one to get me one, I was gonna go buy one myself! But hey, that gave me more money for the ring!

"_Whoa! Is it my birthday?"_

_"No, it's just something I thought you'd like..."_

Ha, at first I thought she was joking. Shoot, I had thought I'd forgotten my own birthday for a second! "_Oh come on, there has to be some occasion. If not, we'll make one!"_

_"Mac, you're so funny, just open it!"_

_"Alright!"_ As I tore the wrapping I saw the dark blue box. "_...No way..."_ I could not believe it. "_...No freakin' way!..."_ I saw Kaori smiling and I knew it was what I thought it was. "_It's...it's a.........a..."_

_"A synthesizer."_

_"Right........."_ I couldn't speak for a second there. "_Oh my...... Why? How?"_

_"I still had some of my race winnings saved from last season. I decided to get you something nice. Like it?"_

Did she seriously think there was any chance of a no? C'mon, the thing's an awesome metallic blue color, my favorite color, and it's _loaded_ with features. "_Like it? It's amazing! Full keyboard, thousands of different sounds, tons of storage space for recordings... It's the ultimate DJ tool! Oh my God, thank you so much!"_ I just felt like hugging her tight like there was no tomorrow......so I did. Heh, I guess I overdid it, just a little...

"_Oh, Mac, it's no problem, really... ah, too tight!"_

_"Oops, sorry."_ Yeah, just a little... "_Dang, I wouldn't have given this to myself for Christmas..."_ Okay, I _might_ have, if I had the money. "_This is just too generous, I'm gonna give you something in return... I know, dinner! I'll take you wherever you want, on me!"_

_"Mac, you really don't have to-"_

_"No, Kaori. It's not because I have to. I want to."_ She looked so cute, I couldn't stop myself from holding her... "_Besides, isn't love all about giving anyway?"_ Hm, don't know where that came from. I must have heard it in health class or on TV... I don't know. But it worked! Oh, yeah, the kiss probably helped too.

"_Mac, what did I do to deserve you?"_

_"Umm......exist?"_

_"Oh, stop it, you're too much."_ *sigh* Wow, that was our best kiss since...the first time...

"_So... Where do you want to have dinner?"_

_"Ummm... Well, I don't get to have Italian food often. How about Olive Garden?"_

_"Ha, I was hoping you'd pick something more expensive..."_

Girls must love it when you want to give them more than they want...

"_Mac, I love you."_

_"I love you too, Kaori."_ I just _had_ to kiss her again, I couldn't help myself... Heh, I'm sure she didn't mind though. "_So, Olive Garden it is, then. I guess I'll see you tonight at about 9?"_

_"Isn't that a little too late?"_

Oh please, 9:00 is _so_ not late. "_...No, not really. They don't close until midnight."_

_"Okay Mac, sure."_

Now, I don't know why I said this. I probably was thinking out loud. Or maybe I just wanted to see her reaction... Yeah, the second one. "_Did I ever tell you how sexy you look with your hair like that?"_

_"Mac, just get out!"_ Wow, she's definitely stronger than she looks! Griff vs. Kaori in an arm wrestle... I'm bettin' on Kaori... Well, it depends...

"_Alright, alright!"_ Thank God I didn't drop the synthesizer when she pushed me! That would suck... "_See ya later!"_

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was sure about it by then. I'm probably thinking selfishly but I wouldn't be able to live life without her kisses.........Yeah, good thing I cut that out of the letter. Smart move, Fraser......... *sigh* I can't wait to see her tomorrow...

*****

My God, I don't know _how_ she can pull off both cute _and_ sexy at the same time! I've never met or seen _any_ other girl that can do that! ...Heh, well, except......uh-uh, no, NO! _Hell_ no, don't _even_ go there Mac!

......Hmm. Ah...I remember back on the plane ride here. That was just...wow.

I'm just sittin' there watchin' the movie, then I turn toward Kaori to say something, and she's asleep! I was like come on, she's the one who made me sit and watch this movie in the first place!

But then I just stared at her... I can't be mad at her. My God, I couldn't take my eyes off her, she's so beautiful... I hadn't really looked at her like that for years, hadn't noticed her changes... Her hair's so beautiful, so brown and soft and smells like pink bubblegum...the pigtails definitely suit her. Umm...... Ha, yeah, those...grew... I thought they'd......never mind, I feel dirty just thinking about it... *sigh* _Anyway..._

I must have been staring at her for at least a minute or two... Then all of a sudden her eyes shot open, catching me completely off guard, I don't know if she was really even sleeping! But she didn't say anything, she just stared back at me and smiled. Her sweet smile... At that point I realized I had my arm around her shoulders... When did that even happen? But I didn't really care, I just kept staring deep into those beautiful hazel eyes...mesmerized... It was just one of those cozy, contented-sigh-type moments; it was just perfect... I wanted to kiss her, but for some reason I didn't. For some reason. After a while she finally started to speak.

"_......This is better than a movie..."_

_"......You're not watching the movie either, are you?"_ She just shook her head and smiled some more. I felt so stupid. "_Man, I bet you weren't even really sleeping!"_

_"Actually, I think I did fall asleep. I really never cared about the movie, I just wanted to be with you..."_

_"...Really?"_

_"Yeah, but you seemed to want to watch this, so I just went with it..."_

Ha, I was grinnin' from ear to ear! At that point I just grabbed the DVD remote and hit Stop. "_Girl, I thought you wanted to watch this movie! That's why I bothered to try and pay attention!"_

Kaori laughed a little at that. Man, I love her laugh, it makes me smile. "_I love you, Mac."_

I was a shocked a bit. That's the first time she's said that to me......in English, anyway. I was gonna go in for a kiss, but out of the corner of me eye I saw somebody coming toward the theater area. I turned behind me and sure enough, Zach was walking over, followed by Elise and Brodi. Zach looked a little tense.

"_Hey, you guys done here?"_

What was I supposed to say, 'hold on a second, can we just lip lock for a minute?' I don't think so. "_Sure, what're you guys watchin'?"_

_"Iron Man."_

_"Ah, I've already seen it."_ I got up from the seat, hoping Kaori would follow. I guess my luck ran out, at least temporarily.

"Mac, I think I'll stay and watch this, I haven't seen it yet."

What was I supposed to say, 'but I want you to come with me so we can kiss!' I don't think so. "_Okay then, I'll be over here."_

When I walked over to the game area I saw Allegra asleep in a chair, Atomika having a drink, and Griff staring toward the back. I went over and gave Griff a tap on his shoulder to see what was up.

He seemed a little sad. "_Hey Mac, how's it going?"_

_"I'm alright, just finished watching a movie."_ Obviously I'm not gonna say Kaori and I were staring at each other...

I quickly looked over his shoulder, and saw Sarah sitting by herself. I realized why he was staring toward the back. "_You like her don't you?"_

He knew who I was talking about. "_I don't just like her............I love her..."_ Hmm, that was a bit of a shocker. _Griff_, in _love_ with someone? "_Mac, how do you do it? You can talk to Kaori like you're talking to me right now. Whenever I try to talk to Sarah all my words get choked up and..."_

I would have thought he wasn't really serious. That is, if he wasn't so solemn. "_Don't worry about it man, it's normal. I think girls like that anyway. Hey, it's better than being completely oblivious Viggo."_ Don't they like that? I think it makes them think we're really sensitive or something...

"_Yeah, that's true."_

I think I made him feel better... Then I felt my stomach gurgle. "_Well, I'm hungry, I'm gonna go get somethin' to eat."_

_"Alrighty then."_ I went into the kitchen to get some pizza or something. And I realized something. That's just how I was when I first met Kaori... Only...only I didn't have anyone to talk to about it...not even her...

*****

...I was only 15, the youngest on the circuit. I didn't know anyone in the competition yet. When the time came, I definitely didn't hide myself, I showed them what I was all about. But I did play it safe a little, just to keep from becoming known as the immature little kid everyone hates. Man, I'm so glad Griff took that spot in third season...

Well, anyway, it was a starry night as I rode up to the starting gates of Snowdream. I really didn't know what to expect, they didn't tell us much about the courses. They just said it was going to be the greatest thing we'd ever experience in our snowboarding careers.

The first race of SSX was going to start in about 5 minutes. I was definitely pumped. So pumped, I was too focused on the massive crowd and the starry night sky to pay attention to where I was going. Oops... I felt myself hit something, and I lost my balance. Crap. As I was falling, I heard a high-pitched scream close to me... Oh God, I didn't hit some_thing_, I hit some_one_!

I quickly pulled my face out of the snow, wiped it off my face, and sat up on my knees. Once my eyes re-focused, I saw a young Japanese girl in front of me, sitting up and rubbing her head. Only one of her board's bindings were strapped on, she must have just been putting on her snowboard. Oh man, I was scared I hurt her, and my heart sank. Good going, Mac, first day on the circuit and you've already gotten yourself in trouble!

"_Oh man, I'm so sorry! I-I hope I didn't hurt you, I wasn't watching where I was going and-"_

She then turned her head toward me and stared at me with her hazel eyes. On her face was a look of puzzlement, annoyance, maybe anger, but it quickly changed to something like...I don't know...something like...fascination...?

"_......Oh... Gomennasai...... Daijoubu?"_

Now _I_ was puzzled. "_Umm... I'm sorry, I don't understand..."_

_"......Watashino iukotoga wakarimasuka?"_

_"...Sorry, uh, I don't speak Japanese."_ I slowly stood up and brushed the snow off me.

She followed suit, and strapped on her other binding, then looked back up at me. Shoot, I wouldn't have been able to say anything even if I did speak Japanese, I couldn't stop thinking about how cute she was...

Apparently she'd encountered English-speaking people before. She said in rough English, "_My name is Kaori..."_ She put out her hand for me to shake, and reverted to Japanese. "_Onamaewa?"_

I assumed she was asking me my name, it kinda sounded like the word 'name' anyway. "_Mac,"_ I said simply, and I shook her hand.

She smiled and continued staring at me in fascination. I continued being nervous. "_Mac..."_ She said it in an intrigued voice, like a new flavor for her tongue.

I smiled back. She seemed very friendly, like she was glad to meet someone close to her age. I really couldn't tell how she was feeling, though...

Suddenly, Rahzell came on over the loudspeaker. "_All racers, please report to the starting gates. The race will begin in approximately two minutes."_ Another announcer said the same thing in Japanese, since Snowdream _is_ in Japan. The crowd's noise grew louder as the other racers headed to the start gates. Man, that crowd was _loud_...

Kaori quickly turned her head toward the starting gates, then looked back at me. Man, I wish I knew what she was thinking... No, wait. Even if I did know, it would be in Japanese, _duh_.

She smiled and said, "_Matane, Mac-kun..."_ She then turned around, almost reluctantly, and started heading toward her designated starting gate.

I stood there for a few seconds, staring at her, before going toward my own starting gate. I was still a little puzzled, mainly from her calling me Mac-kun... But then my mind turned back to the race. I was definitely ready to make myself known...

*****

Kaori and I somehow got along with each other the first 3 seasons. I guess we could have been considered friends, even though we couldn't talk to each other much. It was odd, like fate or something was keeping us together; we always found some way to make each other happy...

About halfway through season 2 I started to get teased; the other competitors would say 'Where's your girlfriend?' or 'I haven't seen your girlfriend today' or 'Did ya kiss her yet?' or other stuff. No matter how many times I told them we were just friends, they gave me the 'that's what they all say' attitude. It was really annoying......especially since I really did have feelings for Kaori. I could almost have said I loved her...but not quite.

Hmmm... But everything changed on that day, at the end of season 3...

......Geez, Mac, are you like, writing a book in that noggin of yours? .........Eh, whatever...

*sigh* It was the closing party for the third season, and everyone was having a blast. I had finished being DJ a few minutes ago, and had let Rahzell take over for the rest of the night. Man, we hadn't seen him since second season, so everyone was excited about his being there. Shoot, _everyone_ was there, like a reunion! Oh yeah, except for Jurgen, we didn't know where he was.

So anyway, I was just standing by the snack table, drinking some fruit punch, just kinda watching Kaori and Hiro chat in Japanese. Kaori looked bored though, she was probably only talking to him because he was the only one there who spoke her language.

After a while, Hiro got up and went somewhere else in the lounge. The lounge had been completely transformed for the party; it was awesome. Anyway, Kaori then looked up and spotted me. I smiled and waved at her, a little more affectionately than I usually did. "_Hi, Kaori, how are you?"_

She had learned enough English words to greet me. "_Oh, hi Mac-kun! Are you good?"_

I loved the way she always said that. "_Yeah, I'm fine, thanks!"_ I walked over to where she was standing and offered her some fruit punch, teaching her another English term. She gladly tried some.

I smiled at her some more, then took a deep breath and reached into my pocket. Earlier I had decided that I was going to reveal my feelings for her at the closing party, no matter how nervous I was. But as I felt around the inside of my pocket, my smile vanished. I realized nervousness wasn't gonna be the problem.

CRAP! I forgot the paper! I had looked up a bunch of Japanese phrases I was planning to tell her, but I left the paper where I wrote them down in my room! Oh, this was bad. I tried to remember the phrases, but unfortunately I could only remember one: Aishiteru, which is 'I love you.' I heard it was a really strong way to say it, but I couldn't remember the other way. But I figured it would be appropriate, since I wasn't just asking her out... I felt I really did love her...

Anyway, I wasn't gonna say that right away...

Apparently Kaori saw me lose my smile; she had a concerned look. "_What happen?"_ she said.

Now obviously I didn't teach her what 'I was going to tell you I like you but I left the paper I had with a bunch of Japanese words on it in my room so I don't know what to do' meant, so I didn't know what to do, or say. It was already late at night, and I couldn't wait until tomorrow, she was leaving tomorrow! So after thinking for a few seconds, I realized what I had to do, even if it made me extremely nervous...

I had to communicate by touch. It was the only way. All she would hear is gibberish until I said 'aishiteru' but what else could I do?

I faced her and slowly took her hand in mine, making her smile a little. Then, to my surprise, she reached to my side and took my other hand. Man, that caught me off guard!

"_Kaori..."_ I tried to say something, but nothing came out. But I don't know what I would have said anyway...

We ended up admiring each other's eyes for a little while, and I enjoyed every second. *sigh* Those amazing hazel eyes... hazel eyes... eyes......... aha! That's it! I remembered another phrase! I don't know how I remembered but I thought I'd better say it before I forgot again!

"_Kirei na me shiteru ne..."_ 'You have beautiful eyes.'

I stumbled over the words a little bit, but she understood. Her cheeks became a little pink.

Then she said something that surprised me even more! "_Mac-kun...... You...you like me?"_

Whoa, when did I teach her that!? But it didn't matter, we were on the same page. At that point I couldn't wait any longer, I just had to say it!

"_Kaori......aishiteru."_

Her eyes widened in surprise and her mouth formed a huge grin as she gasped in delight. "_Oh, Mac-kun!"_ she yelled, throwing her arms around me.

I hugged her back excitedly; I had never hugged her like this before, it felt great!

She suddenly pulled away a little bit, putting her face only inches away from mine, and started to slowly drop her eyelids. I moved my face forward toward her, and our lips met... It was nothing short of amazing! For those 15 seconds all I felt was her warmth and her love for me... Nothing else mattered but her...

"_Alright Sketchy, pay up!"_

_"Grrr... Damn it."_

I quickly let Kaori go and saw Zoe and Psymon standing in front of us. Psymon was angrily slapping six 20-dollar bills into Zoe's hand.

"_Nice doin' business with you, Psymon."_

_"Shut up! *sigh* I need a beer."_ Psymon stormed off to the bar.

I was so confused. "_Yo, what the hell?"_

Zoe gave me a clever smile. "_Long story short, Psymon bet me 50 bucks you wouldn't kiss Kaori before the season was over. I raised the bet to a hundred bucks, saying that you would. He also had to give me an extra 20 if the kiss lasted longer than 10 seconds. And so, I won. Ha, I knew you two weren't gonna stay just friends for long."_ With that, she turned around and walked off.

I turned back to Kaori, who didn't know what the hell Zoe just said. I just smiled at her and kissed her softly on the lips, and I could tell she didn't care what Zoe said anymore.

Kaori let out a happy sigh, and I just kept smiling. My right arm was still around her, but my left hand had drifted down to my pocket, and I was feeling something in there that I didn't remember putting in there. After a few more seconds I realized it was the paper. Damn it, Mac, you put it in your _left_ pocket!? You never put anything in your left pocket! Aw, geez... But hey, at least I told her.

I quickly looked toward the other side of the lounge. The music was still blasting, and everyone else was still having a blast on the dance floor. I looked back toward Kaori, glad I taught her this word.

"_Want to dance?"_ I held out my hand to her.

She smiled and took my hand, and we walked over to the dance floor, ready to enjoy the rest of the night. It was an awesome night...

*****

_And now we leave Mac's subconscious, returning to the present..._

*****

'*sigh* Good times, good times...'

Mac is still laying on the couch, and has been since he started watching the movie. He somehow positioned himself on the couch in such a way that his body never grew uncomfortable.

After laying there for a few more minutes, Mac hears a knock at the door. He wants to just lay on the couch forever but he forces himself to get up and answer it. He itches his head a little as he twists the door handle and swings the door open, and smiles when he sees the person standing there.

"Oh, hey Kao-"

He doesn't even get to finish. Mac wouldn't have known what hit him had Kaori not been right there, embracing and kissing him to death. He takes it for a few seconds before pulling away.

"Haha, whoa! I guess that means you like the ring?"

"Arema, Ma-chan, kirei desu!! Daisuki yanen!! Ari-"

"Ha, okay, either you're speaking Japanese, or Griff drugged that shake..."

"Oh! Sorry!" She tends to revert to Japanese when she's really excited. "I love it, Mac, it's beautiful! Thanks so much!" Kaori hugs Mac so tight he feels like he'll break a few ribs!

"Ow! Okay, okay, that's great!" Mac takes a breather when Kaori finally loosens her grip, but neither of them let each other go.

"So... Yes or no?"

"Mac, what do you think?"

She presses her lips against his again, but this time it's different... Mac can feel her kissing harder than usual... He can feel her maneuver her tongue through his mouth, and he does the same, loving every second. It feels amazing to the both of them, they've never kissed like this before...

Kaori just wants to stay in Mac's loving grasp forever. Then a thought crosses her mind... At first she dismisses it but then she thinks about it... 'Actually, that's a great idea...'

Mac is almost overwhelmed by the kiss, by Kaori's passion. It's great, but weird, like...like she wants to get inside him......... !!! _Or_...... Or she wants him inside her...

Both of them pull away at the same time, staring at each other with a mixture of shock, excitement, love, and wonder, panting slightly. After a few seconds of silence, Mac decides to speak.

"......Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Apparently she is. "...Won't Griff hear us?"

Mac bursts out laughing for a second. "Nah, I swear that kid'll sleep through a nuclear war!"

Kaori returns the laugh, then speaks in a much quieter voice. "Okay, Mac, let's do it..." she says, slowly running her hand through his hair.

Mac widens his eyes a little more. "So you _are_ thinking what I'm thinking." He then narrows his eyes and smiles slyly. "Excellent..." he says in a deep, attractive voice.

They both slowly start walking toward Mac's bedroom.

"So Mac, how- Whaaa!"

Kaori squeals when Mac suddenly sweeps her off her feet and cradles her in his arms.

"Oh! Wow! Mac, you're really strong!"

"Yeah, well, heh, I have been uh, workin' out a little," he says in a boastful tone.

"A _little_!? C'mon Mac, I'm not that light you know..."

"What? I hope you're not callin' yourself fat, 'cuz you're definitely not-"

"No, I'm saying..." She smiles when they get to the bedroom. "...never mind, Mac."

Mac walks over to his bed and gently transfers Kaori from his arms to the bed. She makes herself comfortable while Mac proceeds to close and lock the door.

As he walks back toward the bed, Kaori rests her head on her hand and gives Mac a very sexy stare. 'Damn, how does she do that?'

Then, Kaori's heart nearly skips a beat as Mac slips off his t-shirt and tosses it aside, revealing his upper body. 'Wow, he definitely has bragging rights...'

Mac eases himself onto the bed next to Kaori, and they immediately wrap their arms around each other and kiss each other passionately.

After about 10 seconds of this, Kaori decides to reveal herself to Mac. She pulls away and slowly removes her pajama top...

"......Oh...m-m-m..." Mac's so stunned he can't even finish saying 'my God.'

"You like?"

Mac smiles and starts kissing her neck, running his hand across her chest.

Kaori giggles in pleasure. "Mac, that tickles!"

He moves his lips back to hers as his right hand slides down her side, stopping at her waist. He starts to slip her pants off, realizing she's wearing nothing underneath. Mac breaks the kiss as he tosses aside her pants, and stares at her in amazement, a huge grin on his face.

"So..." she says timidly.

"...You're perfect..."

Kaori's face turns a deep pink. "Mac, I'm far from-"

She stops as Mac proceeds to slip off his own shorts, tossing them behind him. Kaori can't help but stare, wide-eyed and mouth gaping, she's speechless.

Mac eases himself on top of her, wrapping his left hand around her middle, and kisses her lips softly for about 5 seconds. He slowly pulls away and smiles at her.

"So...you ready?"

"I'm ready, Mac."

"Okay."

Next Chapter: **Chapter Seven: Happiness Peak**


	8. Happiness Peak

_(Commentary: COULD IT BE!? IT IS!!! AN UPDATE!!!!! I finally got around to wrapping up this last chapter. I'm sorry for taking so long, my interests tend to fade in and out. I had already uploaded most of this chapter a while ago, so there isn't much that's brand new, but it's enough to satisfactorily close the chapter. So I hope you guys enjoy Chapter 7!)_

_Hmmm, I see Disclaimers in all the other stories. Maybe I should put one._

_Disclaimer: I don't own SSX, EA does. I only own my original characters, whom cannot be used without my permission._

**Chapter Seven: Happiness Peak**

**Part I**

"*sigh* Seriously? I _just_ fell asleep like _two seconds_ ago..."

Zach slowly rolls over from his left side to his right and reaches out to the alarm clock on his nightstand. He taps the button on top a few times but it doesn't seem to be shutting off.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

After tapping it a few more times he lifts his head to see why it won't shut off.

"What the- Oh, wait, that's my _wallet_... *sigh*"

He moves his hand over to the left to shut off the alarm, but rolls off the bed before he can. Luckily his pillow had fallen on the floor while he was sleeping, and it breaks his fall. Sort of.

"Dammit, what's wrong with me today!? I only had _one_ drink last night... Aw, and I've got a headache too, what else can go wrong?"

Now angry, he stands himself up and slams his hand down on the alarm clock, stopping its loud, incessant buzzing.

"That's better. *sigh* Why I bother waking myself up at 8 AM I have no clue..."

Zach plods into his bathroom and quickly grabs an Advil from the medicine cabinet before enclosing himself inside the shower, too tired to remove his shorts. He turns the knob all the way up, but is greeted with an unpleasant surprise as he immerses himself in the stream.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Shit, that's _cold_!!"

He hastily shoves the shower door open and jumps out, nearly falling on the floor. Now dripping wet, he stands there panting from his sudden exertion of energy.

"Why the hell is the water ice cold!?"

Turning back around, he realizes he made a small crack in the frosted glass shower wall from thrusting the door open so hard.

He slaps his palm to his forehead in exasperation. "Oh well that's just great, what am I on, like strike _five_ already? Geez..."

Zach angrily snatches a towel from the towel rack and quickly dries himself off before going back to his bedroom. Once there he throws on a t-shirt and walks over to Moby's bedroom. The door's open a little so Zach takes a peek inside.

"Moby, you awake?"

Apparently not; he's looks like he's making out with his pillow. He starts to mutter something in his sleep.

"......mmm...Zo...mmm...You smell fantastic, my love..."

Zach closes the door and shakes his head vigorously, trying to get that disturbing image out of his head.

"...Ewww...... *sigh* Okay... Let's see who else's water is freezing. God I hope it's not just me..."

He storms over to the front door and swings it open. One out in the hallway he finds Zoe peeking her head out of her room doorway, her hair half wet and her body covered in a black bathrobe.

"Oh, hey Zoe. Your water freezing too?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, good, it's not just me." Zoe leaves her room and enters the hallway. "So what do you think's happened?"

"Well, who else causes 98% of the mayhem that goes on here?"

Zach nods his head. "Right. What's his problem, anyway?"

Zoe shrugs. "Beats me, he's just an insane asshole that thinks he's all that. But I mean he can be pretty cool sometimes... when he's drugged up, anyway..." She then eyes Zach's shorts quizzically. "Hey, uh, you normally shower in-"

"Nah, I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess..." Zach starts walking down the hallway, fists clenched.

"Where ya goin'?"

"To give Psymon a piece of my mind!"

"Dude, hold up!" Zoe runs to catch up with him. "Ya can't just confront Psymon like that, do you know what he's capable of? Shit, if I wasn't sort of his friend I'd probably be dead by now! Why do you think everyone else is so scared of him?"

"Zoe, I've dealt with a trio of armed robbers before, I think I can handle Psymon..."

Zoe stops walking for a second, a little surprised by the statement. Then she shakes her head. '*sigh* Crazy Brit...'

Zach arrives at Psymon's door, the room closest to the lounge, and starts beating it furiously.

"Psymon!!! Open up, I know you're in there!!!"

After about 10 seconds, the door quickly swings open and an annoyed Psymon shows up in the doorway, his hair dyed a deep red and half-gelled.

"What the hell is your problem, I was in the middle of something!!"

"What the hell is _my_ problem? You shut off the hot water!!"

Psymon smiles and lets out a quiet maniacal laugh. "Ha, damn right I did, I hate hot water..."

"Well don't go and shut it off for everyone else! Cool your own damn water! Leave the rest of us out of it!"

Psymon's maniacal laugh grows louder. "Hahaha, okay okay, so wait, you expect me to just go back to the basement and turn the hot water back on!?"

"Why else am I here you asshole!? I wanna take my goddamn shower!!"

Zoe's backing away slowly, praying this doesn't escalate to physical violence.

"Oh look, the Brit's using mean words now! Ha, and what're ya gonna do if I don't!?"

Zach holds up a fist. "This thing ain't clenched for nothin'!"

'Oh God, Zach, please don't...' Zoe doesn't know what to do.

"Hahahahahaha, you don't know me, do you? If you did you'd know I don't feel pain! Pain registers as pleasure to me, you can't hurt me!!"

Zach continues to stare murderously at Psymon with his cold blue eyes, not backing down even a little. His hair is nearly touching Psymon's at this point.

Suddenly, Zach develops a smile of his own. "So what? Pain is just that, Psymon, a feeling. No matter how good it feels to you, I can still do more damage than you've ever experienced. Is that what you want?"

That seems to get through Psymon's hard skull. It gets through really well. Psymon actually seems a little scared, but only for about half of a split second.

Psymon's face turns sour again. "*sigh* Move it." He shoves Zach backward and starts walking in the direction of the lounge.

"Where are you going, Psymon?" says Zach in a clever voice.

"Where the hell do you think I'm going, stupid Brit!?" After a few more seconds Psymon disappears through the door.

Zach turns back around to see if Zoe's still there; he'd tuned everything else out since the confrontation.

"Hey Zoe, you still- Ah, there y- ...What's wrong?"

Zoe stares back at Zach, wide-eyed. "......Shit..."

Zach gives her a quizzical look. "You okay?"

".........How in the _hell_ did you do that? No one else would have been _alive_ that long..."

Zach smiles. "Yeah, well... I'm not no one else..." He starts to walk back to his room.

"Hold up, Zach."

He turns around and finds Zoe eying him curiously.

"So I've been around Moby and his family for a while now, and I've come to learn their...language. But you don't seem to speak like 'em..."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. People expect me to say 'bloody hell' and 'mate' all the time, don't they?"

"Well.........yeah."

"Hmm... Well, my mom's from America. Heh, kind of weird, a rich British man falling in love with an American woman......" Zach's eyes suddenly widen. "Oh crap, wait, I didn't mean it like-"

"No, don't worry man, Moby ain't rich."

Zach chuckles a little. "Ha, well anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but just take my dad's accent, mix it with my mom's dialogue and you get Zach Speak. My parents always used to call it that."

Zoe's amused. "Haha, Zach Speak, that's funny... Well, uh, maybe you can tell me the details sometime..."

"Sure thing, Zoe."

Zach keeps smiling at Zoe, and she realizes what she just implied. "Whoa, wait, not like that!" She points a finger at him. "You better not get any ideas! You see this ring!?"

Zach starts to laugh. "I'm just kidding, Zoe, I wouldn't dream of it! Heh, unlike Moby..."

"What was that, mate?"

Zach whips around and finds Moby staring at him, arms crossed, a sly smile on his face.

"......Oh, uh, nothing, Moby, we were just......uh......hey look, it's Zoe!" He suddenly makes a dash for the room.

Moby doesn't even turn to chase him, he just looks at Zoe and keeps smiling. "So, what'd I miss, love?"

"Oh, you missed _a lot_..."

*****

"This is gonna be hilarious!"

Eddie is quickly slipping a letter-sized envelope under the door to Brodi and JP's room.

'Alright, now I just gotta go tell Elise...'

Eddie jumps up from the ground and starts rushing over to Elise's room. After about two seconds he bumps into someone and stumbles, arms flailing.

"Whoa!!"

Regaining his footing, he whips his head around to see who he hit. He finds Sarah slowly rising off the ground, holding her shoulder.

"Oh, snap! You okay, Sarah?"

She lets go of her shoulder and meets her eyes with Eddie.

"Oh... Yeah, I'm fine. Heh, sorry about that..."

"Nah, it's my fault, I wasn't lookin'. See ya!" He starts dashing down the hall again, not even waiting for her reply.

After a few more seconds, he reaches Elise's door and quickly knocks on it.

He can hear Elise's voice from inside the room. "I'm doing my hair! Can't you wait?"

"No, it can't! It'll only take a minute, I promise!"

About 15 seconds later, the door swings open and an annoyed Elise stares at Eddie.

"This better be worth my time..."

Eddie chuckles. "I sure hope so... So anyway, I just gotta tell you something."

"...So tell me."

"Okay, I need you to _not_ be on Ruthless at 3:00 today. Also, can you try not to let Brodi see you until then?"

She looks at him quizzically. "Umm...... Why?"

Eddie looks both ways, then leans in close toward Elise's ear.

"Well... I'm gonna play a prank on Brodi..." he whispers.

"...I repeat. _Why?_"

"_Because..._ I just wanna scare him. _C'mon_, it'll be hilarious!"

Elise glares at him for a few more seconds before developing a small smile. "You're lucky we're friends, Kid."

"So you'll do it?"

"Eh, alright. I mean it _is_ a _harmless_ prank, _right_? Not like Psymon's idea of a prank..."

"Yeah, no, it's fine."

"Alright then. Now go away, I've gotta finish with my hair." With that, she shuts the door in Eddie's face.

"Hey, that's wasn't very nice!"

Eddie can hear Elise's mocking laughter through the door.

"Pssh, some friend you are!" he mutters.

"I heard that!"

"Oh..." Eddie quickly leaves to avoid getting in any more trouble with Elise.

'Alright, the stage is set! Lemme get some breakfast now. Mmm... I could go for some waffles right now... and some bacon and eggs... with french toast on the side...'

*****

It's about 9 AM, and Atomika's at the Starbucks in Metro City. He's sitting at one of the tables with his Dell Latitude business laptop, doing a bunch of SSX event organizing. He's got his jade green sunglasses on today, and has a cup of iced coffee next to him.

"Hey."

Atomika looks up from his screen to find Allegra in the chair across the table from him.

"Hey, Allegra. What's up?"

"Nothin', just drinkin' some coffee here." As if on cue, she takes a long gulp of her coffee.

Atomika's eyes widen. "Isn't that _hot_?"

Allegra shakes her head. "No... Not to me, anyway."

"Okay..." Atomika shrugs and continues to run his fingers over his keyboard.

"So, Atomika, Remember that rule you said about boys and girls rooms at night?"

Atomika finishes up and closes his laptop. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I'm just wondering... What are the consequences?"

Atomika grabs his iced coffee and takes a long gulp, as if he just remembered it's there.

"...Are you stalling or something?" Allegra gives him a quizzical look.

Atomika quickly puts down his drink. "Um... no, I just wanted to take a drink..." he says hesitantly.

Allegra starts to smile. "...There _is_ no consequence, is there?"

Atomika's eyes widen again. "...Of course there is, you just haven't given me the chance to say it yet."

"Well, here's your chance..."

After about another second Atomika starts reaching for his iced coffee again.

"Aha! You _are_ stalling! I'm right aren't I?"

Atomika lets out a sigh of defeat. "Well, you're half right. I just made up that rule to try to prevent things like... relationship conflicts. I just _hate_ dealing with those..."

"I hear ya dude, I see those on TV all the time. I would _not_ wanna be caught in one of those love triangle thingies..."

"But anyway, if nothing like that happens then I don't have much reason to really enforce it. I'm no police officer... Why'd you ask, anyway?"

Allegra seems to hesitate for once. "Well... Do you know if Kaori's okay?"

Atomika raises an eyebrow at her. "Actually, I saw her in here earlier today......... Come to think of it, she did look a little more upbeat than usual... Why?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that Mac's room is next to mine and last night I heard sort of a scream, it sounded like her. I thought Griff might have done something..."

Atomika looks amused. "Ha, what could _Griff_ do? He may be 18 but he's no more of a threat to anyone than he was when he was 13..." He picks up his drink again and starts to drink the rest of his iced coffee.

"Well, what else would make someone scream...?" Allegra rests her head on her hand for a few seconds, watching Atomika, before she thinks of something.

"Hey... Do you think Mac and Kaori had sex?"

Atomika suddenly coughs and empties half the contents of his mouth onto his laptop. Allegra bursts out laughing.

"Wow, dude, all I said was sex, you don't gotta drown your computer in coffee for it!"

Atomika quickly grabs some napkins and wipes off his laptop and his mouth. "Way to be so subtle about it, Allegra..."

"I'm, I'm sorry, I-I didn't know that, tha- ahahahaha!"

"Allegra, breathe! _Oxygen_, woman!"

"Okay, okay!" She calms down after a few more seconds. "Whoo! Okay... But seriously, do you thi-"

"I _heard_ you the first time."

"Right... So?"

"...I'm not gonna jump to any conclusions. Kaori's okay, let's just leave it at that."

"Aw, man, you're no fun. Alright, I'll change the subject. Let's talk about _your_ love life."

"You really like to gossip, don't you?"

"Only when I'm hyper on coffee."

"Right... Well, if you _must_ know, I haven't had a girlfriend since high school."

"Really? What do you _do_ on Saturday nights? Do you hang out with _anyone_?"

Atomika shrugs. "I have a couple friends in the SSX staff I talk to sometimes, but other than that I'm usually solo." He quickly finishes what's left of his iced coffee.

"Oh... Really? I mean you're no nerd, Atomika, you're a cool guy, I figured you were a people person, y'know?"

"Yeah, well, not so much." Atomika pulls back his sleeve and checks his expensive-looking wristwatch. "Hmm. I should probably be heading over to the station now, gotta set up for the broadcast."

"Really? It takes you almost..." Allegra checks her digital watch. "...45 minutes to set up?"

Atomika cradles his laptop under his arm and rises from his chair. "Yep, let me tell ya, being head event organizer _and_ Radio BIG DJ isn't so easy. But hey, I enjoy it... Well, I'll see you later I guess. Take care, Allegra." Atomika holds out his hand to her.

Allegra looks puzzled. "What? Do I owe you money?"

"It's called a high five, ever heard of it?"

"Oh! Riiiiiiiiiiiight... Heh..." Allegra slaps his hand. "But wouldn't a wave be more appropriate?"

"Yeah, well, I can be somewhat of a nonconformist... I like your hair, by the way."

Allegra smiles and runs a hand through her hair in reaction. "Thanks, I was wondering if this was a good style for me..."

"Yep, looks good on ya!" With that Atomika turns around and leaves.

Allegra continues to play around with her hair. She had gotten rid of her braids and let her orange-blond hair grow halfway down her back. She figured guys like girls with long hair.

But she's not thinking about guys at the moment. Well, at least not in plural form.

'No girlfriend since _high school_? Hmm...'

*****

Later that morning, Mac and Griff are hanging out in their room at the Lodge. Mac's eyes are glued to the TV as he constantly changes the channel every second. Griff's on the other side of the room, practicing his juggling with tennis balls.

"Hey, Mac, I think I can juggle 4 for half a minute now, wanna see?" Mac doesn't seem to hear him. "Mac? Yo, Fraser..." Mac's eyes remain locked on the screen. Griff suddenly tosses one of the tennis balls directly at Mac's head.

"Ow!" Mac snaps out of his trance. "Dude, what was that?"

"A tennis ball."

"I know it's a tennis ball, doofus, why'd you hit me with it?"

Griff smiles and shrugs sarcastically. "Sorry, it slipped."

"Yeah, uh-huh. Try that again and this remote's gonna 'slip' right at your groin, then we'll see who's smiling."

"_Alright_, you don't gotta get hostile, geez..." Griff walks a few steps into the kitchen and grabs a 7up out of the fridge. He looks at Mac for a few seconds, still flipping the channels endlessly, and takes a deep breath before speaking.

"So Mac, Kaori's your girlfriend, right?"

Mac turns toward Griff with a 'duh' look on his face. "No, Griff, I'm dating Britney Spears."

Griff puts a look of disgust on his face. "Oh great, you made me picture it, thanks a lot Fraser!"

"No problem. But actually, Kaori's my _fiancée_ now."

"Oh, so you proposed to her. Well that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Nothing." Griff quickly downs the rest of the 7up, letting the lemon-lime soda burn his throat.

"Dude, just _where_ are you going with this?"

Griff tosses the can in the trash. "Well, I've been thinking, and... well... Mac, how long after you met Kaori did you fall in love with her?"

Mac looks confused. "Uh... I dunno, maybe like... a year? Man, I don't see what this has to do with anything!"

Griff's leaning on the counter now, his head down in thought. "Mac... do you think love at first sight exists?"

"Well, they put it in those stupid Disney movies all the time, don't they?"

"You're not helping..."

"...Well I don't know, I've never seen it happen in real life. I still don't- Hey, Family Guy's on! Hey, this is the one where Lois gets..."

"Y'know, I think I'm just gonna call Brodi, he can probably help me."

"No, wait, I'm listening." Mac turns his face away from the TV for once, but only for a second. "Wait, is this about Sarah?"

"Wow, good job Captain Obvious, you solved the mystery! Here's your prize!" Griff suddenly grabs another tennis ball and throws it at Mac, harder this time.

"Ahhh! Man, that one really hurt!" Mac starts rubbing his forehead. "You nearly knocked my eye out, dawg!"

"Good, maybe then you wouldn't be so seduced by the TV!"

Mac starts to say something in response, but finally looks up at Griff, seeing his troubled expression. He finally tries to help him. "What's the problem? You know you love her, and she loves you too."

"See, that's the thing. I'm really not so sure. Is it love, or is it infatuation?"

"Dude, don't go all Shakespeare on me, I don't get that stuff..."

"What? That's not... *sigh* Never mind that, I'm not sure if I really am in love with her or not."

"...Shouldn't _you_ be able to figure that out for yourself?"

"That's the thing, man, I've never had these emotions before!! _I really don't know_!! *sigh*............ Sorry."

"Nah, it's cool. Go on."

"Well, I thought you could help me figure it out; you're 5 years my senior; you've been in your relationship for what, 4 years now?"

"Well, actually no, last season she was with this guy named Sid."

"Sid? That crazy Japanese guy from last season with the massive sunglasses and no last name?"

"You know him?"

"I saw him on TV a couple of times."

"Oh, OK... But anyway, back on topic..." Mac sighs and thinks for a second. "... Hmm...... Well, Grommet, I probably can't really teach you _how_ to love someone. Uhh... How about I tell you what I think love is. It's probably the most I can give you."

"I can use anything right now."

"Okay. Well...... Okay, _I_ think, that love's mainly about making each other happy. The way I see it, you've gotta... I dunno, share yourself...... _compromise_, that's the word I'm lookin' for. You've gotta compromise, you can't expect to get everything you want out of the relationship. And, uh, make sure not to be selfish. Well, that kind of means the same thing... Anyway, just try to make her happy. Don't change yourself into something else, but give her your best......... Yeah, that's how I see it... Hey, pass me those Cheetos right there."

Griff tosses the Family Size Cheetos bag at Mac. He pulls the bag open and instantly starts devouring the twisted cheese puffs.

Griff nods his head in understanding. "Y'know, I think I actually get it...kind of. Thanks...... Wow, I didn't think you were like that, Mac."

"Yeah, well, Kaori made me watch some mushy romance movies with her, so I kinda know what girls like."

"Wait, that's not exactly what I meant. I always thought you were the ladies' man type, picking up dates left and right, the cool guy..."

"Oh, no, that's not me. I actually never really had feelings for any other girl..."

A few more seconds later, Mac bursts out laughing, little orange particles flying out of his mouth. His attention's completely turned back to the TV.

Griff leaves the kitchen and goes into his room. After about a minute, he comes back out, fully dressed in snowboard gear, carrying a white snowboard.

"I'm going up to Happiness."

Mac turns to look at him. "Why? We're done with Peak 1..."

"I'm just gonna do some more thinking. I need some place peaceful."

"Oh. Okay then, have fun."

Griff walks over to the door to put on his snowboard boots. As he shoves his feet into one, he feels something blocking his foot from going in all the way.

"What the...?" He reaches into the shoe with his hand and feels something soft. He grabs it and pulls it out, finding that it's a clump of cotton balls.

"Mac... Who the _hell_ put _cotton balls_ in my boots!? Ew, they're all covered in toothpaste! And something el-... EWWW!" He throws the clump at the wall opposite him.

Mac turns his head toward Griff, eyes wide. "Dude, I swear it wasn't me this time!"

"*sigh* Whatever, I'm just gonna go get my other ones."

A few minutes later, after switching boots, Griff heads out the door. "See ya later, Mac."

"Alrighty." Mac watches him as he leaves and closes the door. He shakes his head in disbelief. "Man, I can't believe how much that kid's matured in 4 years... Wow." He turns back to the TV and reaches his hand inside the Cheetos bag again. His eyes go wide again.

"Damn! I ate this whole bag already!? Man, how is that possible!?"

**Part II**

Sarah immerses herself in the peaceful atmosphere of Happiness as the noontime sun shines brilliantly above the course. At this time of the day, the sun's reflection off of the snow is borderline blinding, but Sarah doesn't care. The tranquility of the Peak 1 backcountry and the calming sound of her snowboard sliding across the white powder is enough to make her feel relaxed. It's already her favorite course.

It hasn't snowed since the competition began, so there are still multiple snowboard tracks in the ground. But as Sarah lands a jump off a small cliff, one track in particular catches her eye. Shifting her board into a horizontal position, she slows to a halt and inspects a trail that veers off to the left of the course into a sort of mini-forest. It doesn't seem like an accident; there's nothing that could throw an unsuspecting boarder toward the trees. There has to be _something_ over there, even if it is off-course.

Sarah may not interact with other people very well, but she's always enjoyed exploring and admiring nature. She decides to follow the trail, maybe to try to find something worth seeing.

After winding through the trees in the mini-forest for about 30 seconds, she approaches what look like the opening to a cave or tunnel. 'Whoa... The others never mentioned a secret cave or anything... Maybe I'll find something cool in here...'

The trail still continues, so obviously someone else has found this already, wanting to keep it a secret. After about 10 seconds the ground shifts from snow to ice as she becomes enclosed in a long tunnel. She realizes the tunnel's going downhill; she'll have to get off her board and hike back if she needed to turn around.

About a minute later, Sarah exits through the other end of the tunnel. She quickly stops and re-adjusts her eyes to the bright light before trying to see where she is. She slides forward a few more feet before stopping, awestruck by the view in front of her.

Sarah finds herself looking off a tall cliff, overlooking a dense forest of snow-topped evergreen trees. Clearly this area is off-course. In the distance, past the trees, she can see a desolate-looking area with untouched white powder and boulders strewn across the landscape. Over to the far right she can just barely make out the left edge of the Happiness course, the specific area where many an avalanche has happened. To Sarah this spectacular view looks like it belongs in a famous painting.

"Oh my God...... I wish I had a cam- *gasp*" She quickly reaches into her pocket and pulls out her MCOMM. Smiling, she double-taps the screen to bring up the menu and selects the Camera option. She lines up the photo and taps the Capture icon.

"Oops, I left the flash on..." As she starts to snap another photo, she starts hearing a sound. She instantly recognizes the sound, the distinct sound of plastic sliding against plastic.

'A Rubik's Cube? Someone else must be here, then...' Suddenly feeling somewhat awkward, she starts traveling in the direction of the sound, realizing the snowboard trail changes to footprints. After a few more seconds of walking to the right, she realizes that the cliff is like a curved ledge. After rounding the curve of the icy rock wall behind her, she finally finds the source of the sound, and the person making the sound. He's sitting on the ground with his hood covering his blond hair, his white snowboard leaning against the rock wall. He seems deep in concentration, furiously twisting and turning the cube's shifting sections. Suddenly he stops and mutters to himself.

"Wait...it's Ri,F,Ri...F,F? Oh wait, no...umm...oh! Right, it's Ri,F,Ri,B,B..."

He continues twisting the cube again, and Sarah just watches him, not understanding anything he just said, but smiling nonetheless. Only a few more seconds later, he stops and holds the solved cube in his hands, nodding in satisfaction.

Sarah finally says something. "Hey, Grommet."

Griff quickly throws his hood behind his back and looks up at Sarah, wide-eyed. "Oh! Hey, Sarah..." He suddenly throws the cube over his shoulder. "Heh, how long have you been standing there?"

"I don't know...... About a minute?"

"Really? I didn't hear ya..." Griff pushes himself off the ground and stands up. "So.........what's up?"

"Oh, nothing........." Sarah bends down and unlatches her feet from her snowboard. "So......this is kind of a weird place for practicing a Rubik's Cube, isn't it?"

"Heh, yeah, well, this is the only place I can without being called a nerd..."

"Who's called you a nerd before?"

"No one yet, but knowing the others, I really don't want to take that chance..."

Sarah chuckles, then walks toward the edge of the cliff, admiring the extensive view a second time. "So, Griff...what is this place?"

Griff smiles and walks up beside her. "This place? I dunno... I just call it Happiness Peak..."

Sarah turns toward him with a quizzical look. "Happiness Peak?"

"Yeah... I mean it's not the peak of anything... Heh, technically, it's not Happiness either..." Griff shrugs his shoulders. "But hey, it sounds much better than 'Backcountry Cliff' for sure."

Griff chuckles a little as Sarah turns to face him. "So how did you find this? Does anyone else know you did?"

"Hmm... Well, it was the middle of season 3. The rest of the boarders had gone to see a movie, but I couldn't come since it was R-rated. They said it'd give me _nightmares_, as if I still believed in the boogieman or something... Man, I _told_ them my dad let me watch R-rated movies, but they wouldn't listen... But anyways, they just left me there at the lodge by myself."

"Well that's kinda mean... Why didn't they let you see another movie?"

Griff shrugs his shoulders again. "I dunno, none of them wanted to babysit me I guess. They _did_ treat me like I was 5."

"...Who leaves a 5-year-old in a lodge by himself?"

"Haha, I know, right? They confuse me sometimes. But anyway, it was a Thursday and normally I'd be watching Cartoon Network reruns, but there was gonna be a race on Happiness the next day so I wanted to try and find some shortcuts. So, long story short, I was looking for a shortcut in the trees, found the tunnel, and yeah... The rest is self-explanatory. I just kept it to myself for some reason; looking back I'm surprised my big mouth didn't tell the whole world..." Both of them chuckle a little. "Yeah, but now I'm glad I kept it secret. It feels...I don't know, like a place where I can just...escape...*sigh*"

Sarah smiles and turns back toward the view. "I see what you mean, Griff. This view is beautiful..."

"Yeah...and it's even more beautiful today."

Sarah turns back to him. "Why is that?"

"Because... you're here to enjoy it with me."

She stares at him for a second before turning away, blushing.

"Come on, it's not my fault that I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world...... Okay, maybe it is......a little..."

Sarah turns back to Griff and smiles, her face still red. "......You really mean that?"

"Well...yeah. I mean I can be immature a lot of times, but I mean what I say." Griff leans toward her and places a light kiss on her cheek.

For the first time since she first met Griff, Sarah feels fluttering in her stomach. After thinking for a few seconds, she realizes why: he's never called her beautiful before, only her eyes. She feels closer to him than she ever had.

On the other hand, Griff's conscience starts to kick in, getting him thinking again. 'There you go again, Griff, acting out on impulses... Will you _ever_ learn?' The doubts about his confused emotions flood his mind again, and his romantic mood seems to vanish into thin air.

After a few more seconds Sarah notices Griff's sudden change in mood. "Griff......are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine...it's just......" Griff can't decide what to say. Should he quit bottling in his emotions and tell her he's on an emotional roller coaster? Or would it be smart to stay quiet and not risk alienating her? Follow his emotions or follow his conscience...? "No......*sigh* Sarah..."

Sarah's getting a little anxious. He all of a sudden seems very distant, as if something changed about her. "...Griff...?"

"Why do you love me?" he says suddenly, his voice barely above a whisper.

Sarah's eyes widen in surprise, not exactly because of the question itself, but from being unsure how to answer.

Griff sighs again. "Don't take the question the wrong way...it's just...... I don't know how......*sigh*... I'm just...not sure how I feel... Am I being too impulsive?"

After a few more seconds of thinking Sarah gathers her thoughts together...sort of. "Well...maybe at first, but... okay, the first question. *sigh* First of all, if I haven't said it before, I _do_ love you, Griff. That I'm sure of......as for why? I just feel like you're......you're the first person to really love me the way you do..."

"...So...I _am_ doing well with this relationship? I'm not rushing this?"

"What? No..." Sarah takes both Griff's hands in hers, trying to comfort and answer him as best as she can. "I really never...had anyone care about me like this. You're the only person to really ever try to befriend the lonely girl... I dunno......... I guess for years I though I was content in isolation. But then I met you... I guess then I realized how lonely I always used to be. That must be why I fell for you so fast...... *sigh* If anyone was acting on impulses it's me. I'm sorry..."

"...No, Sarah, I should be sorry... I mean I made a move so fast, I wasn't thinking..."

"...but I didn't resist. I guess you could say the both of us are at fault here. But does that really matter...? I mean... 3 days ago when we got to know each other......that's when I really started to feel like you're...you know...'the one' as they say..." Sarah's blushing furiously at this point.

Fortunately, Griff seems to cheer up again. "......*sigh* Ha, well... knowing I'm doing things right sure is a relief... Thanks."

Before Sarah can reply, Griff releases her hands and wraps his arms around her affectionately, and she does the same. Sarah's still amazed at how much he shows his love for her, it just doesn't seem like him. But she's not complaining; no one's ever shown her this much love before.

Griff's just happy that he knows his love for Sarah isn't a blind obsession; his conscience is cleared. 'This is great...no I don't have to feel bad every time I ki-'

Suddenly, Sarah pulls back a little and puts her face directly in front of Griff's, smiling and a little watery-eyed.

Griff's eyes widen. "...Crap, I said that out loud, didn't I...?"

Sarah's chuckles. "Well, I guess that's another thing we have in common..."

With that, she closes her eyes and softly places her lips on Griff's, hugging him tighter. She wants him to enjoy her kiss just as much as she enjoyed his 3 days ago. And he definitely is; Griff feels like his heart's gonna pound its way out of his chest...but in a good way.

After about 10 seconds, Griff feels a vibration in his pocket, and his ringtone starts to play. Nobody really calls him; when they do it's usually something important. Reluctantly he breaks the kiss and reaches for his pocket.

"...Sorry, I should probably answer..."

Sarah's a little disappointed but doesn't show it. "Go ahead, I don't mind..."

Griff quickly fishes his MCOMM out of his pocket and taps the answer icon, eager to get this call over with. "Hey.........umm...I don't know, did you check the......Yeah, but did you check the other path?......Oh, OK. Well, I don't know.........Yeah...Hey can you speed this up, I'm kinda in the middle of......Yeah......uh-huh......yep.........alright then......OK, see you." Griff ends the call and shoves the device back in his pocket. "I swear, when it comes to video games Tyson can just go on and on and on... *sigh* So......" *long pause* "...a few more seconds?"

In response, Sarah slowly embraces him again, staring into his eyes and smiling. Griff develops a smile also.

"...I'll take that as a yes..."

The two share another passionate kiss for about 30 more seconds, practically frozen, before Griff finally pulls away, breathing heavily.

"...My _God_ that was amazing..."

"......Wow..." Sarah whispers, also panting slightly.

After the two cool down, Griff walks over to where he was sitting and picks up his snowboard and cube from the ground. Sarah starts strapping on her board as well.

"So...... Mortal Kombat?"

Griff turns toward her, amused. "What? It makes a good ringtone, doesn't it?"

"Ha, yeah, I guess so..."

Griff starts strapping on his snowboard. "Kinda random, but have I complimented you on your hair yet?"

"...I don't...think so."

"Well, I like it, it's soft and smells really good. I really like those silver stripes, too."

Sarah smiles her shy smile and starts running her hand through her hair in response. "...Are you _trying_ to embarrass me with compliments today?"

Griff puts his hand on his chin and pretends to think for a second. "Ummm, maybe..."

Sarah chuckles and looks down. "Well, uh......thanks..." Griff throws his hood over his head. "So, Griff......how do we get out of here?"

"Oh, that's easy." He motions for her to come next to him at the edge of the cliff. "See that clearing in the trees right there below us? We just gotta jump down, then make our way back to the main track. Makes an excellent shortcut during a race, how do you think I got that Platinum so easily?"

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, it's just like an Out of Bounds shortcut, even though it's off-track... So c'mon, let's go!"

"...This is a pretty high cliff..."

"Yeah, but we've jumped much bigger jumps than this on the tracks already."

"Yeah, moving forward, but not...straight...down..."

"Eh, just bend your knees when you land, you'll be fine." With that, Griff bends down and throws his feet over the edge. Sarah watches him as he roughly lands on the snow below a few seconds later. He moves out of the way to give her room to land.

Sarah follows suit and swings her feet over the edge, but doesn't do so well with the landing, losing her balance and falling on her back in the snow.

"Whoa, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just lost my balance." Sarah sits up and brushes the snow out of her hair. "......Umm...a little help?"

"Heh, right..." Griff quickly slides over to Sarah and helps her up. "...So anyway, I'm gonna head to the arcade from here...you with me?"

"...Sure, I guess... I don't really have anything else to do."

"Great! ...Hey, how about this, beat me there and I'll take you to the movies!"

Sarah smiles and starts to blush again. "And if I don't?"

"......Then you buy your own popcorn." Griff suddenly shoots off through the trees, thinking, 'Wow, that was easier than I thought it was gonna be...'

Sarah starts after him a few seconds later, following Griff's trail. 'Oh, I'm _definitely_ not buying popcorn...'

**Part III**

"*sigh*... What could Elise _possibly_ want me up here for?"

Brodi's standing at the top of Ruthless, studying the note he received from Elise earlier that morning. Her handwriting seems different, but what does he know, he hasn't seen Elise's handwriting in 7 years.

But it's a nice windless day on Ruthless, so he didn't mind taking the trip up here. 'Besides, what could Elise really want from me...? ...She has a boyfriend, right...?'

Brodi starts heading down Ruthless's steep slopes on his Yin-Yang Alpine board, enjoying the crisp mountain air. About halfway down the steep section, he spots a large orange ball a little bit ahead of him......Eddie. He's laying face down on the ground.

"Eddie? What are you..."

As he pulls up next to Eddie, he also notices that under his body is a pool of dark red liquid staining the snow. Brodi would have been alarmed right then...if he hadn't noticed the can of red paint on the ground just a few feet away.

Brodi shakes his head in amusement. "Eddie, you've pranked people plenty of times before; I didn't think you'd make such a stupid mista-..."

But upon closer inspection of the paint can, he realizes something that sets off the alarm after all.

The paint can's not open.

Brodi's head snaps back toward Eddie, still laying on the ground. The red liquid stain seems to have gotten bigger.

"...Oh no......Eddie? _Eddie_?"

Eddie doesn't move or respond.

Brodi quickly unstraps his bindings and rushes over to Eddie's body, somewhat afraid to touch him. "Oh no......This is _bad_."

Heart pounding. he quickly digs his hand in his pocket and pulls out his MCOMM to call an ambu-

"HEY BRODI!!!"

Brodi lets out a small scream and stumbles backward a few feet before landing hard on his butt. "...Owww..." Somehow he kept his grip on the MCOMM.

"Haha! I got you _good_, Brodi, whoo!!"

Brodi stares at Eddie with wide eyes. "But...you......were-"

"Fake blood, dude." Eddie holds up a large tube filled with and covered in red liquid, the same liquid covering his shirt and the spot where he was laying motionless just 30 seconds ago. "Man, I got you with the paint can, didn't I?"

Brodi slowly gets up from the snowy ground, rubbing his lower back. "Ha ha, very funny, Eddie. *sigh* So are we done here? I have to go find Elise and-"

"No dude, I wrote the note. It's part of the trick! My cursive looks somewhat like Elise's, so it worked out! Great joke, huh?"

"*sigh* Whatever... If you'll excuse me, I'm going back to the Lodge to finish my medi-..." His voice trails off.

"...What, you're gonna go without mentioning some ancient Buddha sayi-"

"Where's my board!? It was right here!" Brodi starts looking around frantically for his board.

Eddie shrugs his shoulders. "It didn't slide down the- No, it woulda stopped right there... I dunno, dude, maybe the animals took it."

Brodi stares at Eddie quizzically. "_Animals_? What animals?"

"Y'know, wolves and stuff. They hang around here."

"......*sigh* Great, so my board got taken away by wol-" Brodi glances up at the sky. "Aww, and a storm's starting, what else can g-"

"Shhh! Don't say that, you'll jinx us!"

"...Eddie, where's _your_ board?"

"Oh, it's over there......snapped in two..."

"What!?"

"Hehe, I'm sorry, it was supposed to be part of the prank... Gee, I really gotta start planning the after... Hey, where're ya goin'?"

Brodi's started walking down the course. "Well I'm not gonna just stand here while a storm starts! The sooner we get outta here the better."

"Hey, wait for me!" Eddie runs to catch up to Brodi. "Why don't we call someone to bring us boards?"

"Nah, they wouldn't get here before the storm started. We might as well just walk."

"...Alright then......Man, you're seeming kind of stressed for a Buddha guy..."

Brodi ignores his comment as the two start walking down the track at a relatively quick pace. But they don't make it very far before the wind and snow become much heavier.

"Dude, you sure you don't wanna just call for help?"

"Eddie, we'll be caught in the storm either way. It's better to keep moving than to sit and wait for someone to come anyway..."

"*sigh*...Man, I don't know about this......"

*****

"Kaori... _What_ is _that_?"

"...What, this?" Kaori points to the tray of food in front of her.

"Yeah, that. Are those meatballs? Those are some funky-lookin' meatballs..."

Kaori lets out a small chuckle. "No, Mac, it's takoyaki."

"...Taka-what?"

"_Takoyaki_, Mac." She says it slowly so Mac can understand every syllable. "It's a Japanese food. I used to eat it all the time when I was young."

Mac still looks puzzled. "Okay... Well, what is it?"

Kaori sighs and shakes her head. "Why don't you just try one?" She emphasizes her question by holding up one of the little spheres with her chopsticks.

Mac hesitates a little before taking a seat next to her at the table. "Okay, fine. But only because I trust you."

Kaori smiles and holds the sphere up to Mac's mouth with the chopsticks. But he takes it in his fingers instead, an unreadable expression on his face.

"I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself, Kaori," he says jokingly.

Giggling at his comment, she watches him take a bite, bringing about half the sphere into his mouth. After a few seconds of chewing, swallowing, and awkward facial expressions, Mac finally smiles.

"Hmm, that's actually not so bad." He quickly pops the other half into his mouth quite eagerly.

"Yeah..." Kaori lets him chew for another few seconds before speaking. "Oh, did I mention it's octopus?"

Mac's expression turns sour almost instantaneously. "Oc—_Octopus_?" he stammers as he desperately looks for something to spit in. Luckily, Kaori has some napkins next to her, and he snatches half of them before Kaori can react. "Ack!! Disgusting!"

"Come on, you said it was good a second ago..."

"Yeah, but... Ugh! I just don't eat things that......that used to have _tentacles_!"

When Mac finishes freaking out, he turns to find Kaori staring at him, head resting on her hand, smiling in amusement.

He gives her a quizzical look. "...What?"

Kaori shakes her head, still smiling. "Nothing, Mac..." She then returns to eating her takoyaki.

Mac sighs and buries his head in his hands. "Man, this is like the time my mom tricked me into eating sushi..."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the lounge, Zoe's sitting on the couch watching the weather channel, a bored look on her face.

"Damn, it's a blizzard out there. I feel sorry for whoever's stuck outside in this..."

A few seconds later somebody lands on the couch next to her. Quickly whipping her head to the side, she finds it's Zach.

"Oh, hey Zach."

"Hey Zo, what's up?" He takes a glance at the TV screen. "I'm guessing there's nothing on TV?"

Zoe gives him a mock surprised expression. "Are you kidding? The weather forecast is like, the best show ever man!"

After a few seconds of starting at each other with strange looks, they both burst into laughter. After about another 10 seconds they calm down.

"Ha, well I don't know why that was so funny," says Zoe, "but no, there's really nothing on TV. Kinda sucks since there's not much else to do now..."

"Yeah, I don't feel like playing arcade games so much."

After a few seconds or awkward silence Zach starts to speak.

"Hey, Zoe, can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, shoot."

"Well...remember earlier when I went to get Psymon to turn the water heater back on?"

Zoe's eyes widen at the mention of Psymon's name. "Uh, yeah. What about it?"

"Well, no offense to you, but you just looked so...scared. More scared than I could have ever pictured you." He pauses for a second. "I guess in my anger I wasn't thinking clearly, but now that I look back I'm wondering if I was putting my health—or my life—at risk..."

After another extremely long silence (minus Griff going crazy on DrumMania in the arcade) Zoe sighs and responds quietly.

"I've...known Psymon for a long time. In that time I've seen him do some things...some extremely insane things, insane even for him. I just...hmmm... When Psymon gets angry enough-"

Suddenly, the doors to the lobby burst open, and Brodi and Eddie stand in the doorway, shivering vigorously. Snow is caked in their hair and boots, and their clothes are soaked. Eddie's shirt is covered in red, and he looks like he can barely stand up. If it wasn't for Brodi holding his shoulder he probably would have collapsed right there.

Viggo is the first to say something. "Uhh... _What happened_?"

That comment catches the attention of everyone else in the lounge. Within a few seconds Brodi and Eddie are surrounded by all the boarders, minus Sarah, Elise, and Psymon (thank God).

"Are you guys okay?" Griff asks after a few seconds' silence.

"Of course they're not okay you idiot!" Mac retorts, "Look at them!"

"How'd you guys get caught in the blizzard?" Carol asks, concerned.

"...M-m-mommy..." is all Eddie manages to say.

Brodi finally sheds some light on the situation. "Well, long story short, _Genius_ here managed to get us both stuck on Ruthless without boards. We walked for _hours_ to get back here!"

"That's terrible!" exclaims Seeiah, also concerned.

"Well, why didn't you just use your emergency call on your MCOMM?" asks Allegra.

Brodi's expression turns from angry to puzzled. "Emergency call?" Suddenly all eyes are on Allegra.

"Uh...yeah. There's a feature on the MCOMM that lets you call for help if you're stuck on the mountain. Just press the button and a helicopter arrives in 2 minutes..."

The other boarders continue to give her puzzled looks (except for Eddie, who's mere seconds from unconsciousness).

"...What? Didn't Atomika mention it at that meeting one time?"

After a few more seconds of awkward silence, Viggo speaks up.

"Okay, number one, I don't think anyone gives a damn what Atomika says at those meetings, am I right?" No response. Viggo continues anyway. "And two, I don't remember him saying anything about an emergency call feature."

"But dude," replies Tyson, "you just said you don't pay attention to-"

"I know what I said!"

"Hey Viggo, calm down why don't ya? What're you so mad about?" Mac questions.

Viggo suppresses his seemingly thoughtless anger and sighs loudly. "I'm sorry, I've...just been having kind of a bad day...... I'm gonna go to my room, find some blankets for Eddie or something." He slowly walks out of the lounge, head down, hands in pockets.

Brodi interrupts another awkward silence. "Well, uh, all that aside, I didn't even have my MCOMM on me so..."

"I-I did," Eddie manages to stutter. (What? He's still conscious?)

Brodi snaps his gaze toward Eddie. "You _what_!?" Without even waiting for a reply, he drops Eddie on the ground (who passes out instantly) and storms off toward the rooms. "I'm gonna go meditate," he mutters as he pushes through the glass doors.

Kaori has a pained expression on her face as she looks toward the doorway. "Poor Brodi..."

Mac looks around anxiously. "So, uh... Who's gonna be the one taking The Kid back to his room...?" Silence. More silence. Mac sighs defeatedly. "...Fine, I'll do it."

*****

The storm ended about 2 hours ago, and snow crews were quick to clear the roads and get everything up and running again. In the somewhat active nightlife, Allegra wanders through the streets of Metro City, searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth.

After a while she happens upon a small ice cream shop. Freddy's. But it's not the name of the shop that draws her attention. It's the ominous dark brown desert sitting on one of the tables inside. And a certain someone sitting in front of the desert, eying it hungrily.

'What the... Atomika?' she thinks as she approaches the door, resisting her urge to smile.

Atomika looks up as he hears the door swing open, and smiles at the girl entering the shop.

"Hey, Allegra! Looking for some dessert?"

She gives him a 'duh' look. "Well, yeah, but now I'm more interested in that brown mountain sitting in front of you."

"Oh, this?" He returns his gaze to the huge dessert, licking his lips as he does. "This, my friend, is Death by Chocolate," he states excitedly.

"Ha, no kidding, I'm getting chest pains just from lookin' at the thing." Allegra maneuvers over to the chair next to Atomika. "What the hell is it?"

"Well, it starts off with 4 huge scoops of _delicious_ chocolate fudge ice cream, mixed in with Oreo cookie pieces, chocolate chips, and fudge brownie pieces. Then, it's topped with _more_ chocolate chips, _more_ brownie pieces, chocolate crunchies, chocolate sprinkles, and gooey, warm melted fudge. Finally, a mound of chocolate whipped cream is sprayed on top, and topped with _even more_ sprinkles and hot fudge." He licks his lips again and sighs in pleasure. "It's a chocolate lover's dream come true..."

Now sitting beside Atomika, Allegra stares at the dessert wide-eyed. "Damn... That's _a lot_ of Calories."

Atomika's grin grows even wider. "I _know_, isn't it awesome!?"

A few seconds of silence pass before Allegra turns toward Atomika. "You're not gonna eat all that by yourself, are you?"

Atomika's smile neutralizes. "...Well I _was_..."

Allegra's mouth drops open in shock.

"_But_... I'm willing to share." His smile returns. "Grab a spoon."

Allegra does so, and within seconds the two are stuffing their faces with the chocolate monstrosity, loving every second of it. Somehow they manage to carry on a conversation while eating.

"So Atomika," Allegra starts, after gulping down a spoonful of chocolate whipped cream. "Do you have a nickname?"

"Uh... not officially, no."

"Well, you need one." She swallows some ice cream. "Let's see... you like A-man?"

"Whatever fl-"

"No, too unoriginal. Hmm... Hey, how about Atom Bomb? Or A-bomb, that works!"

"Sure."

"No, that sounds stupid..."

A few more stupid nicknames later, Atomika interjects.

"Hey, you know what? Why not just call me DJ? That's simple enough, right?"

"...What, you don't like Atom Skywalker?"

Atomika gives her a blank stare. "...No."

After about 20 minutes of eating, the two finally finish dying by chocolate and lick their lips and rub their stomachs in satisfaction.

"Oh my God... I've never had that much chocolate...in my whole life."

"Ha, this is nothing, Allegra, try eating a whole one by yourself. Now _that_ hurts."

"Geez, I can't imagine... I...I think I just gained 10 pounds..."

5 minutes of idly sitting later, Atomika rises from his chair and stretches. Allegra follows suit.

"So Allegra... Wanna go for a walk? You know, to kinda burn some of this chocolate."

"Uh... Sure, why not? I've got nothin' to do."

Allegra and Atomika leave Freddy's and breathe in the crisp night air of Metro City. The two stroll down the sidewalk in silence for about a minute, both unsure of what to say. Then, Allegra decides to say something, in hope of sparking a conversation.

"So..." She pauses to think for a second. "I, um, haven't had a drink since we got here..."

Atomika turns to her with a curious expression. "Really?" he says. Allegra nods. "Hm... four days, right?" Again, she nods. "Well, cool..."

He smiles benevolently to her for a second before taking a quick glance at his watch. 10:17.

"Wow, I didn't realize it was so late."

"Why? You need to be somewhere?"

"Well, I wanted to catch the Wildcats game tonight."

"Oh, you watch baseball?"

"Yeah, I just think it's an awesome sport. Not as awesome as snowboarding, but it's cool."

Allegra nods in understanding. "I didn't even know baseball went on now. Wouldn't the weather put a damper on things?"

Atomika shakes his head, smiling. "No, it's _always_ warm and sunny in Paradise City."

"Really? Where exactly _is_ Par- whaa!"

Allegra's toe snags on an uneven part of the sidewalk, and she quickly loses balance. Before Atomika can even think, both his arms are around her, halting her fall.

Allegra stares at him for a second, eyes frantic. "Damn... Nice reflexes."

Atomika chuckles sheepishly in response. "Um... thanks."

After a few more seconds, Allegra straightens herself, and Atomika realizes where his arms are.

"Oh! Wow, um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, um..."

He itches his hair nervously as she blushes slightly.

"No, don't be sorry, it's okay..."

The two walk in a somewhat awkward silence for another minute until they reach their split-off point, Allegra heading back to the boarders' lodge, and Atomika returning to his home located somewhere in the vicinity of his radio tower.

"So... Allegra... Good luck in the races tomorrow!"

She smiles. "Yeah, I hope to see ya around," she says as she holds her hand up.

Atomika looks at her, puzzled.

Allegra's grin grows. "It's a high five, ever heard of it?"

Atomika laughs out loud as he realizes the joke and meets his hand with hers. "You're awesome. I'll see you."

He looks at her for another second, smiling, before slowly releasing her hand and turning the other direction.

Allegra continues to look in his direction, a thoughtful expression on her face. She doesn't let him get too far...

"Atomika, wait up!" She quickly closes the gap he opened between them.

"Yeah?" He turns around, finding Allegra barely an inch in front of him.

"I, um, wanna give you something..."

She bites her lower lip in hesitation before her face slowly drifts toward his, and her lips meet his slightly open mouth. Atomika's eyes drift closed as he savors the short kiss, feeling her hand resting on his shoulder.

After about five seconds, Allegra slowly pulls away and drops her hand to her side.

Atomika seems slightly stunned. "Um, did you... whoa."

Allegra gives him a satisfied smile. "Yeah..."

A few seconds of staring later, she turns around to start walking. "See ya," she whispers.

Atomika blinks his eyes rapidly a few times before smiling and turning around himself. "Whoa..." he repeats.

Allegra can't stop grinning. "Yes. Yes..."

**_(Commentary: Okay, well that concludes the first "block" of the story. I'm expecting this story to have three "blocks" by the end, so I still have a ton more to do. In future chapters I want to include more action and exciting events than romance, so that's to be expected. Umm... School has me pretty busy, so updates won't be frequent, but I'll make sure to pack a lot into each new chapter to satisfy all you devoted readers...however many of you happen to be out there. I thank all the readers and reviewers, you guys are my only reason for writing this story. I'm hoping it won't be too long until I update again!)_**


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